SW6: The Lion King II: Simba's Pride Adventure
by MWolfL
Summary: The team visit Simba and his new daughter Kiara, only to find that his past made him overprotective of her. Can they convince him to lighten up and help him defeat new foes at the same time?
1. He Lives in You

The team and other Superwolves and I were back in The Lion King World. It was nighttime and I once again let out a howl to signal the animals. And this time we found out why my howls were never necessary: it turns out that the grandfather of the newborn cub signals the animals by wind messages like the ones from the Pocahontas World! Well, almost like the ones in the Pocahontas World, the plants, instead of being fall leaves, are actually bits of plant fluff mixed in with smaller leaves. And as you have probably already guessed, Mufasa sent out the wind this time. There was a song playing this time too, except it was a guy singing it and there were different lyrics. Actually, it turns out that Boss was singing this one.

Night  
And the spirit of life  
Calling  
_Oh, oh, iyo_  
Mamela  
_Oh, oh, iyo_

Ubukhosi bo khokho  
We ndodana ye sizwe sonke

Now the sun was rising. As before the team and other Superwolves and I traveled to Pride Rock on hoverboards, only this time everyone had already gotten used to riding them. So instead of remaining still on the boards, almost all of us started doing tricks on them. 'Almost', because Ed and Double-Dee tripped on their own boards, bumped into Eddy, and ended up in a pile on Eddy's hoverboard. Actually, apart from the Eds, those who have ridden skateboards found out that hoverboards are easier to ride and do tricks on. Makes sense considering that skateboards can only be done on flat surfaces whereas hoverboards can travel anywhere, even water if they have rocket power.

Wait! _Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!_  
There's no mountain too great  
Hear these words and have faith  
_Oh, oh, iyo_  
Have faith

_Hela hey mamela_  
_Hela hey mamela_  
_Hela hey mamela_  
_Hela hey mamela_

Once we reached Pride Rock, the team traveled to the front instead of hanging out near the back like they did before. The four of us went to our usual positions on top of Pride Rock.

He lives in you,  
_Hela hey mamela, hela_  
He lives in me  
_Hela hey mamela, hela_  
He watches over  
_Hela hey mamela, hela_  
Everything we see  
_Hela hey mamela, hela_  
Into the water  
_Hela hey mamela, hela_  
Into the truth  
_Hela hey mamela, hela_  
In your reflection.  
_Hela hey mamela, hela_  
He lives in you

Once the team reached the front, Danny's ghost sense went off and, knowing what set it off, looked into the sky and waved. Everyone else – except for the Eds, they were still stuck in a pile – looked where Danny was looking and waved too, because there was the ghost of Mufasa shining like the sun. A new wind suddenly left Mufasa and swooshed down to the tip of the main ledge of Pride Rock, where Rafiki had just appeared. All of the animals – monkeys, elephants, and giraffes to name a few – bowed to Rafiki.

_Ingonyama nengw enamabala_  
_Ingonyama nengw enamabala_

Simba and Nala, who was carrying their cub, appeared at that point and Rafiki hugged them before taking the cub from Nala. Zazu of course was also there, and just like Simba's subjects he bowed too. Rafiki held the cub up just as he did with Simba years ago – we found out from Boss that he really was the mandrill who held Simba up when we first came here. All of the animals leapt about while making excited-sounding noises. Mufasa was still glowing, except this time it was in more ways than one as he proudly looked down at his grandcub. You know, one look at the cub and we knew that he was going to be like the way Simba was when he was a cub.

He lives in you  
_Oh yeah_  
He lives in you  
_Hela hey mamela, hela_  
He lives in me  
_Hela hey mamela, hela_  
He watches over  
_Hela hey mamela, hela_  
Everything we see  
_Hela hey mamela, hela_  
Into the water  
_Hela hey mamela, hela_  
Into the truth  
_Hela hey mamela, hela_  
In your reflection

Another wind flew from Mufasa and, carrying his praise with it, swirled around Simba and Nala. The wind then swirled around the cub, who playfully swiped at it, and Rafiki, and then blew to where the four of us where we were waiting. As I did beforehand with Simba, I took magical dust out of my pocket and with a breath delivered its speech giving powers to the cub. The animals got excited again and bowed, and this time the team bowed along with them! The animals then started stomping excitedly, including an elephant who startled a flock of birds with just one stomp. The birds flew behind Simba, Nala, Rafiki, and the cub as the team started to go over to them. The four of us went to them too.

He lives in you  
_Ingonyama nengw enamabala_  
_Ingonyama nengw enamabala_  
He lives in you

Just as the team and the four of us neared them, we saw something new: Rafiki spread some fruit juice onto the cub's forehead, apparently a 'welcome to the world' greeting or something. Well, at least it's better than the 'spank of life'. The cub at first looked confused about the juice on his head, but then smiled as his parents nuzzled him.

We then noticed that we didn't see Timon and Pumbaa beforehand because they were quite a bit behind Simba and Nala near the right side of the ledge (when you're facing Pride Rock).

"Ah Pumbaa look at that little guy," Timon sighed proudly. "A chip off the old block! And you gotta know who's gonna raise him."

"His parents?" Pumbaa replied.

"Okay, sure, get technical, but who's going to teach him the really important stuff?" Timon asked rhetorically, jumping off Pumbaa. "Like how to belch? *Burp!* Or dig for grubs? I'm telling you buddy, it's gonna be like old times: you, me, and the little guy."

Rafiki chuckled.

"It is a girl." He corrected, amused.

"Girl." Timon shrugged, not really hearing the word.

"GIRL? OY!" Timon and Pumbaa cried before they fainted.

You know, their reaction was so sudden and unexpected that even we girls couldn't keep from laughing!


	2. An Overprotective Parent

Weeks passed, and the cub was now around the age that Simba and Nala were when they ventured into the Elephant Graveyard. She ran/leapt excitedly out of the den and gazed around her future kingdom. Or 'queen'dom if you want to get technical.

"Wow!" She said before running down to explore the Pride Lands.

"Whoa." Simba said, suddenly appearing.

He grabbed his daughter and gently set her down, but she started to run off again.

"Where do you think you're going in such a hurry?" He teased good-naturedly as he grabbed her around the middle with a paw.

"Daddy!" She giggled, trying to escape. "Let go!"

"Now I just want you to be careful." Simba said.

His daughter, instead of listening, started pouncing after a butterfly. Simba stopped her in mid-pounce with a paw on her tail.

"Kiara are you listening?" Simba smiled. "Accidents can happen, you can easily get hurt…."

"Hurt or stepped on or even get lost." Kiara finished, a little annoyed to hear the same old warnings that she had been hearing ever since she was born.

"And remember," Simba continued. "I want you to stay inside of Pride Rock at all…."

"'At all times', I know." Kiara finished, rolling her eyes. "'And if I see any strangers, don't talk to them, come straight home.' Okay, okay can I go now? Pleeease?"

"Very funny." Simba smiled.

Nala and my friends and I, just leaving the den, happened to overhear.

"Mind your father Kiara." Nala smiled, sitting next to Simba.

"Yes mom." Kiara said, half-annoyed/half-amused.

"And stay away from the Outlands." Simba warned, turning serious.

"Nothing there but a bunch of backstabbing murderous outsiders." Zazu added, just flying in.

"Zazu's right," Simba agreed. "You can't turn your back on them."

"Really?" Kiara asked. "How come?"

"Never mind, just run along now."

"But dad I…"

"You'll understand someday. Go on."

"Daaad." Kiara said, annoyed.

She nuzzled under her father's paw as the three of them purred before running off.

"And stay on the path I've marked for you!" Simba called after her.

Okay, quite a lot of us either hit ourselves on the forehead or rolled our eyes at that one.

"Simba," Nala chuckled. "Who does she remind you of?"

"Huh? What?" Simba replied. "Who?"

"She's just like you were when you were young." Nala smiled, nuzzling Simba.

"Exactly." Simba agreed. "Do you realize the dangers we put ourselves in?"

Nala playfully pushed him onto his back.

"You mean the dangers **you** put us in." She corrected, causing Simba to chuckle slightly as she nuzzled him again. "She'll be fine." Nala added before going back to the den.

But once she was out of earshot….

"Hey Timon, Pumbaa, c'mere." Simba said.

Timon and Pumbaa were gazing at the Pride Lands during the conversation.

"Good morning mon Capitan." Timon greeted Simba as Pumbaa walked over; Timon of course was on Pumbaa's back.

"I want you to keep a close watch on Kiara." Simba ordered quietly. "You know she's bound to run off."

"Don't worry Simba," Timon replied. "We're on her like stink on a warthog."

"Hey!" Pumbaa said, insulted.

"It's a hard truth Pumbaa, live with it."

"Guys I'm counting on you." Simba interrupted. "Danger could be lurking behind every rock."

"Aha." Timon said to himself.

Timon then looked left, looked right…and held his nose before he and Pumbaa left.

"Are there any dangers **under** those rocks?" Mandy said to Simba sarcastically.

Simba gave her a stern look before leaving to attend to his kingly duties. After that the team and the four of us all shook our heads.

"Doggone it," Numbuh Five muttered. "Simba changed worse than we expected."

"Yeah," Numbuh One agreed. "Sending Timon and Pumbaa after Kiara like that is pathetic."

"I agree." Penny P added. "Letting you know that a guardian is going along with you is one thing, but sending someone after you without letting you know is another. This will only result in startling Kiara, annoying her, and maybe even ironically causing her…."

"…To run off, I know." I finished. "That's the problem here, but unfortunately Simba doesn't seem to realize that. If only there was a way that we could make him see that his idea of 'protecting' Kiara will do more harm than good."

We all thought for a minute….

"I've got an idea!" Numbuh Two said. "You know how they say that a picture is worth a thousand words? How much do you think a moving picture is worth?" He grinned.

Understanding his idea, we all smiled.

"Okay Camera you heard Numbuh Two, get going." I ordered in a friendly tone.

"Roger that." Camera saluted…that is he would have saluted if he had anything to salute with.

He left at lightning speed in order to catch up with Kiara…

…Who was playfully chasing a butterfly along Simba's path. She probably would have succeeded in capturing it, but it was staying too high in the air.

"Hey, wait, come back." Kiara said to the butterfly. "I just want to play."

Instead of flying to a lower position, the butterfly landed on a rock in front of Kiara.

"Ah, mighty hunter has cornered her prey." She said to herself, crouching down in a stalking position.

She took a few steps and…missed, the butterfly flew away. Forgetting about the butterfly for a moment, Kiara moved to the top of the rock and looked at the view.

"Whoa, cool, the Outlands." She said to herself, sitting down. "Wonder what's out there."

Camera, wondering what she was thinking, turned on his most rarely used feature: mind reading. Here's what Kiara was thinking: _Of course I'm not really going to the Outlands, don't want to get backstabbed, but still, it looks like a cool place to visit with the Superwolves._

Huh, it looks like Kiara is smarter than Simba was back when he was a cub.

Unfortunately, Kiara was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice anyone hidden in the tall grass behind her. Camera did and watched the movement in the grass…whatever was in there got closer…it neared Kiara…heck, you can almost hear the theme music from _Jaws_ playing…it was just a few inches from the rock…Kiara suddenly sensed someone stalking her…she turned around slowly…and screamed! Timon screamed, Pumbaa screamed, Kiara screamed again, Timon screamed again, Pumbaa screamed again, then all three of them screamed at once…and Kiara backed away until she slipped into the pond below!

"Ooh don't worry Kiara! Uncle Pumbaa's comin'!" Pumbaa cried as he jumped into the pond.

"Oh no!" Timon cried before saying to himself: "Uh, ah, let's see, eh, 'gee Simba, the good new is: we found your daughter. The bad news is: we dropped a warthog on her. Is there a problem with that?'" He added nervously.

Meanwhile, in the pond, Pumbaa realized that it wasn't as deep as he first thought.

"Kiara?" Pumbaa said, looking around the water and not noticing the bubbles underneath him. "Kiara?"

"PUMBAA!" Timon called down. "Let me define: **babysitting**!"

Pumbaa was at first confused, until he realized that he accidentally landed on Kiara! He quickly leapt backward, allowing Kiara to come back up onto the surface. She came up spluttering, and then glared at Pumbaa once she caught her breath.

"Sorry." Pumbaa said sheepishly.

He and Kiara began to leave the pond.

"Now princess Kiara, as Simba's daughter, you know better than to go off all alone, you could've been hurt." Pumbaa said sternly; well, sternly for him anyway.

"Buh…buh…." Kiara stammered protestingly.

Okay, two descriptions of the irony here: it's sickening, and so thick that you can cut it with a knife!

"Hurt?" Timon said, worried, as he leapt off the rock. "Oh, Simba would kill us. You didn't slip a disk didja?"

"But…but." Kiara protested.

"…Get a fever? Get a hangnail?" Timon continued, taking a look at Kiara's paw.

"Timon!" Kiara said, annoyed, as she swiped her paw away.

"I had one once." Timon added, not listening to Kiara.

"Very painful." Pumbaa agreed.

"Excruciating." Timon agreed.

He then plucked one of those types of grasses that has long leaves on it and held it over Kiara's face.

"Darling, with your complexion you should stay outta the sun." He pointed out.

Kiara angrily swiped the grass blade out of Timon's hand.

"What?" He asked, confused. "Do you wanna wrinkle?"

"Will somebody please just listen to me?" Kiara complained.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't listening, didja say something princess?" Timon asked.

"I'm not just a princess you know, that's only half of who I am!"

"Oh, uh, who's the other half?" Pumbaa asked, curious.

"Well…I…um…uh." Pumbaa stumped Kiara with that one.

"Well while you're figuring it out, let's eat!" Timon declared.

Timon went over to a log and snapped his fingers, and Pumbaa lifted the log off the ground.

"Grubs!" Timon added, holding a leaf of bugs just like he did with Simba long ago.

"The other white meat." Pumbaa added, tossing the log aside.

Heh, another bit of irony there.

"And so high in protein." Timon agreed, offering the leaf of bugs to Kiara.

"Ewww!" Kiara said. "Gross!"

"No? How 'bout you big boy?" Timon asked Pumbaa.

Pumbaa sniffed the leaf of bugs deeply.

"*Ahhh*, love grubs." He declared.

"Not like." Timon agreed.

"Love." They both said.

Pumbaa then grabbed a bug and bit in one move…but then unexpectedly made faces that translated into 'picked the wrong one' and spat out the rest of the bug back onto the leaf.

"Oh, you always do that!" Timon complained. "You take a bite outta every one and then put it back, it drives me crazy!"

"But you can't tell from the outside which are the really slimy ones!" Pumbaa explained.

"Slimy?" Timon repeated, grabbing a grub. "Oh Pumbaa, my corpulent compadre, it's the crunchy one that make the meal."

Kiara rolled her eyes as Timon ate the grub.

"Slimy." Pumbaa corrected.

"Crunchy." Timon disagreed.

"Slimy." Pumbaa argued.

"Crunchy." Timon shot back.

"Slimy."

"Crunchy."

"Slimy."

"Crunchy."

"Slimy."

"Crunchy."

"Slimy."

"Crunchy."

"Less filling." Pumbaa said, changing the pattern.

"Taste good." Timon said, joining in.

"Less filling."

"Taste good."

"Less filling."

"Taste good."

"Less filling."

"Taste good."

"Less filling."

"Taste good."

And they continued on, but Kiara didn't hear more than that because she saw an opportunity to escape…and took it in one particular direction. Camera didn't follow her because he knew that it was now time to alert the team and the four of us to what we had expected from the beginning.


	3. Kids Vs Adults

When Camera found us, we were playing in the Pride Lands along with Jack and Numbuh 274.

"Hey, hey! Guys!" Camera called, getting our attention.

"Don't tell us," I said knowingly. "Kiara ditched Timon and Pumbaa?"

"Yup." Camera replied.

"Oh brother." Numbuh 274 and Jack both muttered.

Heh, go figure that Jack would say that.

The team and the four of us, and even Jack, all ran after Camera as he led us to where Timon and Pumbaa were still arguing:

"More satisfying." Timon argued.

"Melts in your mouth." Pumbaa argued.

"Timon! Pumbaa!" I called. "GUYS!"

No luck, they were too caught up in their arguing to notice us.

"If I didn't know better I'd say that they're enjoying this." Hermione muttered.

"Actually I think they are, this is what you call a 'friendly argument'." I smiled. "Only problem with that at the moment though is that we're going to have to resort to physical methods of getting their attention."

"Like what?" Ron S asked. "Splash them with water?"

"Yup." I said.

I then conjured up a big bucket of water above Timon and Pumbaa, which tipped over and drenched them.

"What's the big idea…?" Timon began angrily. "Oh, were we overdoing it?" He realized sheepishly.

"That's kind of an understatement." I smiled, amused.

"Look, no argument is worth losing someone over!" Hermione scolded Timon and Pumbaa.

They were at first were confused, until they looked around.

"Kiara?" Pumbaa said. "Uh-oh."

"We're in trouble aren't we?" Timon said nervously.

"At least with Simba." Hermione agreed before running off.

"Hermione!" I called after her, annoyed.

No luck, she continued on without even looking back.

"What a tattletale." Dongwa said disapprovingly.

"What's her problem?" Sagwa asked.

"Her problem is that Kiara has left for the Outlands." Lupin explained.

The rest of us turned to where he was looking, and sure enough the Outlands were dead ahead – sorry, maybe not the best choice of words. According to my nose, Kiara had headed there all right.

"Now what do we do?" Snowy asked.

"Keep Hermione from making a mountain out of a molehill." I replied before running towards Pride Rock.

Actually most of the members of the team were confused at that one.

Luckily, I made it there before Hermione could say a word to Simba. I quickly leapt in front of her, cutting her off.

"Hold it Hermione," I said. "Don't go making a mountain out of a molehill here."

"Mountain out of a…do you realize where she went?" Hermione said sternly.

"Yes. Do you realize that she's Simba's daughter?" I replied sarcastically.

"Why do you think I'm going to tell him…?"

"Remember that day we first met the three hyenas?" I interrupted her. "If Simba wasn't as quick and resourceful as he is, he and Nala would have been eaten even before **we** got there."

"Then why did you have us rush after them?" Hermione asked, a bit confused.

"Because obviously it was the right thing to do." I explained. "Look, since Kiara has inherited Simba's ability to dodge danger she'll be fine."

"You know Miranda you're too much like a kid!" Hermione snapped as she walked away.

All of the kids were insulted at that…except for my fellow operatives.

"Bad move," Numbuh 274 muttered, looking a little nervous just like the other operatives. "Very bad move."

Sure enough, I grew furious and growled. My fur bristled, fangs bared, and I pounced on Hermione so that she landed on her back.

"Well you're too much like an adult!" I growled as she looked at me wide eyed.

It took her a few seconds to recover after I leapt off her, but when she did she bared her teeth and prepared to pounce me. It didn't work, I unexpectedly ducked down so that she ended up leaping over me and even over the side of the ledge! No major casualties though, since there was a rock pile there that broke her fall without breaking her bones. She only got a few minor bruises that could be ignored.

"What's this all about anyways?" Simba asked, confused.

"Kiara's in the Outlands!" Hermione said as she climbed back up.

"Yes but remember she'll get out of there…" I started.

"Nala! Kiara's in the Outlands!" Simba cried as he ran past me.

"…Fine." I finished/muttered. "I hate it when adults do that."

"Now what?" Jimmy E asked.

"Now we might as well find out why the Outsiders are outsiders in the first place." I shrugged.

Everyone nodded and we started to leave…but then I suddenly ducked down again. A second later Hermione soared right over me and tumbled down to the ground!

"You're good," George complimented me. "You're very good."

I only smiled.

"Remember: there is such a thing as 'too much like an adult' but there is no such thing as 'too much like a kid'!" I called after Hermione before leaving.

"Doggone it." Hermione grumbled as she made her way back to the stair-like-pathway that lead from Pride Rock to the ground.

"You mean 'wolf-gone it'." Ron W joked. "You really flew out there."

"Yeah well Miranda's reflexes are all over while my reflexes are mostly in my wand hand." Hermione said bitterly.

Unexpectedly, a white blur pounced Hermione off the pathway and caused her to scream! Once Hermione and the blur landed on the ground, everyone saw that the blur was I as I skipped past them.

"See what I mean?" Hermione muttered as she came back.

"We sure did." Sheen grinned.

The team and other Superwolves caught up with me.

"Okay," Hermione confronted me as she cut me off. "Just give me one good example of why there is such a thing as 'too much like an adult' but there isn't such a thing as 'too much like a kid'."

"Simple." I replied. "Remaining a kid is referred to as 'growing up slow' and turning adult, especially too soon, is referred too as 'growing up fast'. Now, take Aesop's fable The Tortoise and the Hare and replace the hare and tortoise with 'growing up fast' and 'growing up slow' while replacing the race with life itself. Get the picture?"

The team and other Superwolves, except for Hermione was impressed, and agreed that I had made a very good point. Hermione frowned, stumped, but didn't remain stumped for as long as I expected.

"You and your sense of humor!" She rolled her eyes.

A few others, including Numbuh Two, frowned, but I only smiled.

"Remember Roger Rabbit's words?" I asked Hermione.

"Which ones?" Hermione said sarcastically. "The slightly funny ones, very funny ones, or hilarious ones?"

"Nice sarcasm, but I meant some of the very few words of his that were never funny at all." I replied. "I was referring to 'If you don't have a good sense of humor, you're better off dead'."

"Oh are you saying that those without a sense of humor should kill themselves?" Hermione snapped. "Fine words coming from someone who hates suicide!"

"No Hermione." I shook my head. "I'm saying that those without a sense of humor already **are** dead."

"What?" Hermione stared, confused.

Everyone else looked at me blankly as my words started to sink in.

"How do you come up with this stuff?" Ron W asked, impressed.

"Eh, it's just stuff the Stone Gods believe in, remember Boss thinks of me as a daughter, so it's obvious that he'd teach me all those sayings and philosophies." I shrugged.

"You mean they believe in there's such a thing as growing up too fast but not growing up too slow?" Harry asked.

"Yup, despite the fact that they're millions of years old – billions actually in some cases – they're still just kids deep down." I nodded. "So if they can remain kids even after turning a hundred, then there is no reason why we can't."

Hermione gave up, and actually looked a little regretful. So did some of the other adults for that matter.

You know, we were so into that slight argument that we forgot to take Rip with us – not that it mattered anyways. Jack was the only one who noticed, but instead of going back to bring Rip with him he went back and stayed there since he left his special mask back home. He didn't rejoin us until we returned, because he figured that by the time he'd catch up with us we would be pretty much on our way back. Camera flew ahead to see how Kiara was doing…

…And saw that both she and an Outsider cub were dodging crocodiles! The two of them quickly ran up a tree that led to a cliff-like-ledge. The Outsider cub made it, but just as Kiara was about to reach safety a crocodile bit the tree! Kiara clung tightly as the tree wobbled under the crocodile's powerful jaws, but then leapt to the safety of the ledge. After catching her breath, she and the Outsider cub looked down the cliff and saw the crocodiles piling up under them and hissing disappointedly.

"I did it…." Kiara said to herself. "I did it!"

She tossed the crocodiles a raspberry as the Outsider cub sent a laugh down at them. They then laughed together as they moved away from the cliff.

"Oh man did you see the size of those teeth?" Kiara said excitedly. "They were going 'rar', 'rar', 'rar', 'rar', 'rar'! He'd totally eat you up right there and I jumped on his head and I bumped him so good!"

See, I was right: Kiara was not only able to get herself out of danger but even helped another cub to safety as well!

"We make such a good team!" Kiara added, calming down. "And you…you were really brave."

"Yeah?" The Outsider cub smiled. "You were pretty brave too. My name's Kovu."

"I'm Kiara." Kiara said a little flirtingly.

Kovu looked a little uncomfortable at that. Understandable, that was probably the first time he ever encountered flirting.

"Tag you're it!" Kiara laughed, tagging Kovu. "Tag you're it, you're it!" She laughed at first, but then stopped: Kovu wasn't even smiling. "Hello, you run, I tag, get it?" Kiara asked

Kovu's only response was a confused small shrug.

"What's the matter, don't you know how to play?" Kiara asked.

Then, looking at Kovu's serious face, Kiara realized that he prefers fake fighting as apposed to regular playing.

"Oh."

Willing to oblige, she crouched to the ground and leapt about while making playful growling noises. Kovu smiled, this was exactly what he wanted. He crouched too with a playful snap of a growl.

Unexpectedly, an angry lion appeared out of nowhere from behind Kiara and roared loudly! In retaliation, an angry lioness unexpectedly appeared from the tall grass near Kovu and roared back! The lion was of course Simba, but the lioness was a stranger to us…though Simba seemed to know her.

"Zira." Simba almost hissed, apparently unhappy to see her.

"Simba?" Zira smiled, happy to see him…though not 'pleasant happy'.

She crouched down as if to attack, but was cut off with the arrival of Nala, Timon, Pumbaa, the team and us Superwolves, and a few other lionesses. Pumbaa gave an angry snort as the rest of us glared at her.

"Nala." Zira said politely yet coldly.

"Zira." Nala frowned.

"Timon, Pumbaa…." Timon continued sarcastically.

"Miranda, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Rudy, Penny, Snap…." Double-Dee continued stupidly as he pointed at us one-by-one.

"Someone shut him up!" I said through my teeth.

Rolph obliged by knocking Double-Dee down.

"Great, now that we all know each other…." Timon finished sarcastically. "GET OUTTA OUR PRIDE LANDS!"

"Your Pride Lands?" Zira growled angrily before snapping a roar at him.

Timon ducked down Pumbaa's mane with a nervous/scared laugh.

"These lands belong to **Scar**!" Zira declared harshly.

The team and the four of us glared at her for that. So that was why she and her pride were Outsiders! Made sense to us.

"I banished you from the Pride Lands!" Simba reminded her sternly. "Now you and your cub: get out!"

Kovu and Kiara crouched down under their parents in shock…and maybe in fear too.

"Oh, haven't you met my son Kovu?" Kiara asked, mockingly acting friendly. "He was hand chosen by Scar to follow in his pawprints…and become king." She finished with a slight growl.

Simba growled slightly at that, but Kovu, apparently a little scared of Simba, shivered so hard that he rattled.

"*Pffft!* That's not a king," Timon joked. "That's a fuzzy maraca!"

Fortunately, Zira ignored him.

"Kovu was the last born before you exiled us into the Outlands," Zira continued bitterly. "Where we have little food, less water…."

"You know the penalty for returning to the Pride Lands!" Simba interrupted strictly.

"But the child does not!" Zira pointed out harshly. "However, if you need your pound of flesh, here."

She nudged Kovu in Simba's direction. Kovu trembled as he looked at Simba in fear. There was a tense pause as we all wondered what Simba was going to do with Kovu. Simba looked at Kovu for a moment before turning back to Zira who was smiling evilly.

"Take him and get out." Simba ordered coldly. "We're finished here."

Simba picked up Kiara.

"Oh no Simba, we have barely begun." Zira smiled evilly.

She then chuckled evilly, causing Kiara to look at her wide eyed with fear.

Zira picked up Kovu as we all turned towards our homes. I kept an eye on Zira while Simba and the others started to leave just to make sure that she didn't pull any sneak attacks. However, just as I turned around to join my friends….

"Bye." Kiara whispered under her breath.

Interested, I turned around to look at Kovu….

"Bye." Kovu whispered back under his breath.

Realizing that they had just become friends, I smiled. I had a feeling that their friendship might come in handy later.


	4. We Are One

As we continued on to Pride Rock, Simba stopped near a rock on top of a hill.

"Simba?" Nala said, noticing this.

Simba cleared his throat and Nala continued on with an understanding smile. Simba then placed Kiara on the rock. Kiara at first grinned sheepishly, but then went back to her unhappy look as she saw Simba glaring at her.

"Kiara what did you think you were doing?" Simba said gently yet seriously. "You could've been killed today."

"But daddy, I…I didn't mean to disob…." Kiara began.

"I'm telling you this because I love you," Simba interrupted. "I don't want to lose you."

"I know." Kiara sighed.

Actually, most of us were a little annoyed that Simba wouldn't let Kiara talk. After all she had her points, like the fact that she would have never gone into the Outlands if Simba had trusted her and didn't send Timon and Pumbaa after her. This was different compared to the time that Simba led Nala into the Elephant Graveyard after all, in this case Kiara was only ditching Timon and Pumbaa and she knew they'd never follow her into the Outlands.

"If something happened to you I don't know what I'd do." Simba continued. "One day I won't be here, and I need you to carry on in my place, you are part of the great Circle…."

"…Circle of Life, I know." Kiara finished, sounding a bit annoyed.

"Exactly, and you need to be careful. As future queen…."

"What if I don't want to be queen?" Kiara asked, almost admitting that being royalty was apparently not pleasant for her. "It's no fun."

"That's like saying you don't want to be a lion." Simba explained. "It's in your blood, as I am. We are part of each other."

"*Hmph!*" Kiara replied, looking away.

Simba's response to that was to playfully nudge her off the rock where she landed in dandelions. She looked up and saw Simba grin, so she grinned back. She then got up and she and Simba nuzzled for a moment before Simba broke into song. Noting that the song might come in handy later, I took out a tape player and hit the record button.

SIMBA:  
As you go through life you'll see  
There is so much that we  
Don't understand

And the only thing we know  
Is things don't always go  
The way we planned

As Simba sang, the lyrics actually reflected to what we were seeing: a baby bird trying to fly – and succeeding – but being forced to stop by its frowning mother. The baby bird frowned back and reluctantly flew back into the nest. Kiara and most of the team and I didn't like that.

But you'll see every day  
That we'll never turn away  
When it seems all your dreams come undone

We will stand by your side  
Filled with hope and filled with pride  
We are more than we are  
We are one

We continued on until we saw a wildebeest mother and her baby, who trying to stand for the very first time. The baby wildebeest at first failed, but then succeeded with a little help from his mom. After getting used to his legs, the baby wildebeest then gave a happy shout as he ran around, and soon his mom joined in too. We moved on past the wildebeest herd, past a chain of monkeys eating bugs off one another – except for the one in front, he ate bugs off a tree – and past a kid hippo leaping on top of his parents' heads one-by-one until he landed in the water. His parents then used their heads to push him out of the water. Kiara stopped at a log to look at her reflection in the water below.

KIARA:  
If there's so much I must be  
Can I still just be me  
The way I am?

Can I trust in my own heart  
Or am I just one part  
Of some big plan?

Around the first two lines, Simba stood behind Kiara and smiled before moving on, and interestingly Danny stood right behind Kiara just before the third line. This made it look as if he was indirectly asking his parents the same thing. What none of us knew at the time was that not only did Danny's parents listen to that line, but so did a bunch of other parents who were watching us.

We continued on until we reached another hill with a dead looking almost horizontal tree on it. I'm saying 'dead looking' because I think Savannah trees sometimes look dead, without leaves that is, while they're actually alive. Simba stood on a bottom branch as he continued singing.

SIMBA:  
Even those who are gone  
Are with us as we go on  
Your journey has only begun

Tears of pain, tears of joy  
One thing nothing can destroy  
Is our pride, deep inside  
We are one

We leapt down the hill and ran past various animal families, smiling and leaping since we were running for fun. I even let Sector V onto my back so that they were riding me the rest of the way. Well, truthfully the Eds didn't leap down: they fell down and ended up tumbling to Pride Rock together like a ball, causing them to fall behind.

We soon entered Pride Rock on the rock pile that Hermione tumbled down earlier when she first missed pouncing me. The four of us, with Sector V still on my back, followed Simba and Kiara, even stepping into the same puddle they did. We then leapt pass Simba and Kiara and onto the main ledge, where I let off Sector V. Everyone else followed, except for Simba and Kiara, they stayed on the rocks.

We are one, you and I  
We are like the earth and the sky  
One family under the sun

All the wisdom to lead  
All the courage that you need  
You will find when you see  
We are one

Kiara had a confused look on her face. Simba noticed and at first looked confused too until he realized that she didn't understand the term 'We are one'. He smiled and hugged her.

"As long as you live here, it's who you are." Simba said before he kissed Kiara. "You'll understand someday."

Kiara only stared out into the Pride Lands without a word, and who should appear but the very same baby bird that tried to fly earlier! Kiara smiled as the baby bird flew happily around her and into the distance. The bird finally got its chance to be free.

The rest of us went up to the ledge in order to wait for the Eds to catch up with us. And this time, they had really blown it. Everybody knows that you shouldn't introduce yourself or especially your friends to someone you don't trust unless if you're being sarcastic! After all, the one that you don't trust might use your name or your friends' names to their advantage, but if you're sarcastic while you say the name then it will be hard for them to tell whether that's your real name or not.

It didn't take long for the Eds to show up, and now I had finally reached the end of my rope on them.

"That does it!" I said the Eds angrily. "We all have had enough of your mishaps and I finally can't take it anymore! For here on, you three are permanent Superwolf Watchers! Get out!"

"It's about time!" Jonny said.

"Serves you dorks right!" Kevin agreed.

"You have soured like milk in a desert!" Rolph added, using one of his 'farm lines' for the first time since the adventures started.

For once, it not only made sense but Kevin didn't even laugh like he usually does.

"We are not budging!" Eddy said defiantly.

"Sheep skin seat socks." Ed said for no reason.

He actually said stuff like that a lot during the Adventures, but it didn't seem worth it to write it down. Despite the fact that we were used to it there was a very long pause at that one. A few of us made circular motions around our heads.

"We don't have time for this…." I finally muttered. "Sarah will you get rid of them please?"

"I thought you'd never ask." Sarah smiled back.

"We're still not moving!" Eddy said.

"You think you'd have learned by now." Double-Dee muttered, looking nervous.

Sarah literally ran through the air towards the Eds.

"BIG TROUBLE!" Ed cried out in fear. "HAVE PITY CHILD OF THE NETHERWORLD!"

Okay…er…. We really stared at Ed awkwardly as he quickly grabbed Double-Dee and dove into his compartment in one move. He would have grabbed Eddy, but Eddy was too short for Ed's quick move. Eddy, suddenly noticing Sarah coming at him, gave a yell of fear and tried to run into Ed's compartment. Sarah got him at that point, and as they both disappeared into the compartment Rip quickly detached it from himself and zipped away. He can do that, but he mostly does it during emergencies.

Then a second later, the compartment started leaping and shaking – obviously caused by Sarah beating up the Eds – as Ed's knick-knacks and furniture leapt in and out of the compartment! This included a weird looking mask and what looked like a sci-fi sandwich. The sandwich, instead of landing back into the compartment, landed on the ground.

"That's Ed for ya." Kevin muttered, glancing uncomfortably at the sandwich.

"Please tell me that's not a sandwich." Sam pleaded, looking understandably grossed out.

"Er…well it used to be a sandwich." Nazz said, also looking grossed out.

"Yeah, but, like, now it's 'fungi food'." Shaggy joked even though he too was grossed out.

Oh let's cut to the chase: **all** of us were grossed out.

Shaggy was right when he said 'fungi food,' the sandwich was covered in unrecognizable mold and mushrooms. I quickly used my wand to send the 'fungi food' back into Ed's compartment, which the rest of the team and other Superwolves looked very relieved about. The compartment soon stopped thrashing about, and Sarah climbed back out without a scratch.

"That's got that finally taken care of." She said, dusting her hands off. "I've forced them back into our own World."

A.N. The compartments have a special closet that leads to the World that the compartment's owner belongs in.

I went over to the compartment and lifted a latch near the bottom. Under the latch was a button, which I pressed. The compartment exploded slightly so that the pieces landed on the ground without any damage. I also did the same thing with Double-Dee and Eddy's compartments after Rip detached them. Jack soon reappeared, and started collecting the pieces without a word. You see, each compartment has it's own unique features, so when a Superwolf Friend becomes a Superwolf Watcher, his or her compartment is broken down and reused for future Superwolf Friend compartments. I didn't do that to Casper's compartment for Ichabod though because truthfully I figured that one dangerous encounter would be enough to turn him back into a Superwolf Watcher. After the first Headless Horseman incident he's stopped being that interested in dealing with the supernatural and now just prefers to either live at Katrina's farm or teach his class. I did do that to Casper/Ichabod's compartment the day after we first arrived in this World though.

Once all that was over, a wave of relief and peace washed over us…until we noticed Numbuh 274 sitting down at the edge and staring into space.

"Are you okay?" Sheegwa asked sympathetically.

"Huh? Oh, yeah I'm fine," Numbuh 274 said. "I was just thinking about Simba's song."

"Oh don't connect it with Destructo or Mega." I replied, knowing what he was thinking. "They aren't your real parents considering the way that they treated you."

"I know." Numbuh 274 muttered. "I was just 'an heir to their evil legacy' instead of a son to them."

"Exactly," I agreed. "Just combine 'if you can't make family into friends or vice-versa then they're neither' with 'we are one' and you get the full of it."

"Yeah." Numbuh 274 smiled, hugging me. "I'll always be grateful to you for saving me. It was amazing how you knew."

"Aw, I didn't entirely know." I smiled. "But I was suspicious. Like I pointed out before, back when you saved our fellow operatives from Destructo and Mega you cared more about them than about being the best. But then when you 'seemingly' betrayed us, you actually cared more about being the best than about your friends. After that happened I had a feeling that your ex-parents had become a bad influence on you, and I hoped one day to save you from that."

"Well, you not only did but also you gave me a better life filled with more fun than Destructo and Mega ever gave me." Numbuh 274 smiled. "Truthfully, your parents feel more like parents to me than Destructo and Mega ever had."

He means the cartoon versions of mom and dad, their Main World selves don't really get into this sort of thing like I do.

"Well forget Destructo and Mega," I smiled. "You're part of our family now."

"It's been great to finally have a good brother." Jack added, returning from his compartment parts haul. "Jojo never fit that title."

Everyone was 'happy-amazed' at that.

"You've adopted him?" Stitch smiled happily.

"Indirectly adopted him." Jack corrected. "After all neither mom nor dad signed any paperwork or anything."

"Say, I've been meaning to ask," Numbuh 274 said. "Why did mom and dad name our oldest brother Jojo?"

"They didn't, that's just our nickname for him." I chuckled.

"Yeah," Jack chuckled. "His real name is Jonathan, which ironically means 'sensitive and playful' in the baby name book. Actually it was that description that caused our parents to pick that name for him in the first place. Boy were they disappointed, and with good reason. I switched from calling him Jonathan to calling him Jojo because it combines the first letter of his name with the word 'dodo'…he never caught on to that."

We all laughed.

"So what about your name Jack?" T-Bone asked.

"Since Jojo sort of became the opposite of his name our parents thought I should be given a name to become opposite to so that I'd become kid-friendly." Jack explained. "So when I was born dad named me after Jack Benny: a stingy, cheap and sarcastic comedian. Well, he really was only like that on the radio but whatever. The name Jack also has connections to well known childhood names and toys so there you go."

"Say," Numbuh 274 joked. "Maybe I should be renamed after Abbot and Costello or Charlie McCarthy."

We all laughed again. Since Numbuh 274 ditched his old name that Destructo and Mega had given him he's been called only Numbuh 274 ever since. Jack and our parents and I have thought about renaming him, but not even he wants to rush into it. He actually likes being referred to as just Numbuh 274 even though he wouldn't mind a new non-operative name.

"Say, do you think you'll ever return to the Kids Next Door World Numbuh 274?" Daphne asked.

"Not until Father is dead and after I turn eighteen." Numbuh 274 replied. "Once I turn eighteen I'll be able to live my own life my own way and start to make amends for what Destructo and Mega forced me into. And of course even though I have been one of the greatest Kids Next Door operatives ever I still can't handle Father very well. If the other villains found out that I killed Destructo and Mega they'd kill me."

"What were you thinking of doing when you start living your own life?" Mickey asked.

"I thought I'd become a kindergarten or elementary school teacher," Numbuh 274 said. "We could use some good teachers after all."

"Uh, you do need a good education for that you know." Velma pointed out.

"I know, I'm planning to go to school with Numbuh K9 in the Main World and get my education that way." Numbuh 274 explained. "After all most of the teachers in the Main World can't be as bad as the ones in our world. Then when I reenter our world I'll earn myself a Teacher's Degree or something and look for a job."

"A very good idea." I smiled.

"What job are you planning on getting Miranda?" Ash asked.

"I was thinking of becoming a zookeeper." I said. "After all I'd get to work with wolves that way as well as with other animals. Well, come on, let's get back into Rip."

While we were talking the sun had set and it was now nighttime. We went into our compartments and prepared to eat dinner and go to bed.


	5. Planning to Defeat the Outsiders

However, what the team, Ron W, Hermione, and I didn't know was that earlier that evening Harry had sent someone to spy on Zira. We found out the next morning because he explained that to us and said that he had found out that Kovu actually thought that he and Kiara could be friends. We all agreed that that was an interesting thought for Kovu considering how his mom was raising him. Harry also warned us that Zira took Kovu's thought the wrong way and was now using it to her advantage by training Kovu to pretend to like Kiara while in reality he would be planning to kill Simba.

After we finished pondering about how she would accomplish this, we figured that this would best work out by Zira doing something that would give Simba no choice but to let Kovu into the Pride Lands…whether Simba trusted him or not. There was only one way Simba would let Kovu into the Pride Lands: if Kovu saves Kiara's life from something. We spent many weeks figuring out how to let part of Zira's plan to work – letting Kovu into the Pride Lands – without Kovu assassinating Simba. See, Harry also mentioned that Kovu apparently doesn't want to follow in Scar's pawprints! This means that if we could bring Kovu fully to our side, he would not only be reunited with Kiara, but would maybe even help us deal with Zira. It might be difficult though, since Kovu would be understandably loyal to his mom, but maybe his past friendship with Kiara will help to make it easy. Unfortunately, we couldn't think of anything that would help-yet-not-help Zira at the same time while actually helping Simba, Kiara, and Kovu.

_Much later…._

Camera was awoken one night by a colorful wind. Recognizing the wind as being from Mufasa, he flew out of his recharger and tried to wake Rip up quietly. Even though Rip never needs sleep that badly he can be practically unconscious whenever he **is** asleep.

"Rip." Camera whispered. "Rip!"

"Huh…what?" Rip mumbled, just starting to wake up.

"Look!" Camera whispered.

Rip, now awake, saw the wind. Realizing that the wind was trying to blow into Jack's and my compartment, he opened the top. Since I'm a heavy sleeper, the fact that I can understand the wind aided Mufasa in waking me up. Mufasa sent out a roar into the wind – which only I could hear – and that worked. Dazed yet awake, I left the compartment halfway and paused to yawn.

"Mufasa." I said to myself under my breath.

Following the wind to Rafiki's tree, the first thing I noticed that the 'half-boulder' from the last time we were here was gone. This caused me to smirk. I didn't blame Rafiki for wanting it removed, after all it did get a slight residue of basilisk poison on it when the basilisk we battled bit it in half. I then climbed up the trunk and rested on a thick branch. The branch that I choose to rest on fortunately gave me a clear view of the 'floor' in Rafiki's home without his being able to see me. This was good because Rafiki was doing some painting and I didn't want to interrupt him…or them rather. Apparently Rafiki and Mufasa were having a chat and Mufasa wanted me to hear it for some reason.

"Oh Mufasa," Rafiki sighed while finishing a painting of a lioness. "Every day Kiara grows beautiful into a queen that will someday make us all very proud. But this cub Kovu," Rafiki added seriously as he painted a mane onto another lion painting. "Grows stronger, and Zira fills his heart with hate. I'm very worried Mufasa, things are not going well, no."

The wind started to pick up….

"Hm?" Rafiki said. "You have a plan?"

A fruit fell from a branch and split in half….

"What?" Rafiki gasped as he picked up the fruit halves. "Kovu? Kiara? Together? This is the plan…?" He said as he put the fruit halves together in front of the painting of Kovu and Kiara. "ARE YOU CRAZY? This'll never work! Oh Mufasa you've been up there too long your head is in the clouds!"

"The poor guy can't help it." I chuckled to myself.

Suddenly, the wind really picked up, not only causing me to cover my ears with my paws but also causing Rafiki to try to stay upright: Mufasa was yelling at Rafiki.

"OK, OK ALRIGHT OK!" Rafiki yelled. "I don't think this is going to work, but I trust you. I JUST HOPE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!"

You know, back when we were trying to come up with an idea to foil Zira's plan, we never thought of helping Kovu and Kiara end up together. As you know I do have the 'cupid's eye' but I couldn't control it back then, it automatically 'clicked' on its own. Meaning that it never clicked for Kiara and Kovu…that is, not until after that conversation.

"He does know what he's doing," I said to Rafiki, coming down from the branch; he at first was startled but it didn't take him long to recover. "When my friends and I first met Zira and Kovu I noticed Kiara and Kovu whispering bye to each other. This obviously meant that Kiara and Kovu were starting to become friends."

This caused Rafiki to look thoughtful for a few moments.

"Maybe it will work," He finally agreed. "So, Mufasa apparently wants you to help."

"Well that is the only good reason for waking me up." I muttered good-naturedly. "He sure can roar loud."

Rafiki chuckled.

"So, any ideas?" He asked me.

As if my planning skills were caught in a power outage beforehand, a great idea suddenly clicked on.

"Yeah, I just thought of a good one!" I exclaimed. "If I can get a couple – as in girlfriend and boyfriend – to help me, I can pair them up with Kovu and Kiara."

"What will that do?" Rafiki asked. "Show them how good love is?"

"Well, it could, but that's not the idea." I corrected him. "See, if Kovu becomes close with the boyfriend and Kiara becomes close with the girlfriend, the fact that the boyfriend and girlfriend stick together means that Kovu and Kiara will have to stick together! And the longer they do, the sooner they'll fall in love."

"Say, that might work, but how do we get Kovu to become that close with the boyfriend?" Rafiki asked.

At that moment a wind blew past us, though it looked different, a little golden in color to be exact.

"I didn't understand that…." Rafiki said, confused.

"That's because it was from a Stone God, not a Pride Land King." I explained. "I'm the only one who can understand wind messages from them. The Stone God that was talking to me says that he has an idea that will solve that little detail. He already knows which couple I picked through mind-reading."

"Right, so we'll just leave that to him…." Rafiki paused. "Wait a minute, which couple are you going to put with Kiara and Kovu?"

"I've got a good idea who should be the couple chosen for the job…." I whispered the names to him.

"That's brilliant!" He exclaimed. "Of course, it's impossible to stop trusting the boyfriend so that will help with Simba not only letting Kovu into the Pride Lands but also trusting Kovu later as well!"

"That's why I thought of them." I nodded.

"So, when are you planning to tell the Superwolf Friends?" Rafiki asked.

"Not until the plan really clicks in." I said. "I don't want to risk any details to slip in front of Simba or Kiara. I'll just put the girlfriend with Kiara under an alibi tomorrow so that they can become close in time."

"I hope you can think of an alibi by then." Rafiki joked.

"I might end up sleeping late but I think I can manage." I teased back.

We both laughed.

"So when do you think the plan will 'click in'?" Rafiki asked.

"Well, Harry spied on Zira weeks ago and found out that she's going to make Kovu pretend to like Kiara so that he can get close enough to Simba to kill him." I explained. "So in order for that to happen Simba will have to let Kovu into Pride Rock whether he wants to or not. Of course the only way that could happen is for Kovu to save Kiara's life."

"I see, well the best chance Kovu will get at that is if Kiara ends up far away from Pride Rock." Rafiki added. "The most likely time for that would be Kiara's first hunt."

"Right. So, what are you going to do to help Kovu and Kiara end up together?" I asked.

Rafiki thought for a while on that.

"I've got it!" He said. "What's the best general way to help a boy and girl end up together?"

"Well there's the traditional 'candlelight dinner'." I thought out loud. "Hey, maybe we can do a take-off of the _Lady and the Tramp_ dinner scene!"

Rafiki would have taken me seriously if not for my smirk.

A.N. He knows about that movie because he's one of the regular guests at Mickey's club – The House of Disney – just like Lady and Tramp. Actually, practically all of the Disney cartoon characters know each other and about each other's adventures thanks to that club.

"I was thinking more along the lines of a romantic song." Rafiki corrected, smirking.

"Great idea," I agreed, this time not joking. "Luckily you have plenty of time to come up with the lyrics."

"I've already thought of the title anyways." Rafiki nodded. "'Upendi'."

"Upendi?" I repeated. "Is that African for love?"

"Yes, Swahili specifically." Rafiki said.

"Boy am I learning a new language." I chuckled.

Rafiki chuckled back.

Rafiki and I said our goodbyes, and I went back to Pride Rock, Rip, and sleep.

Other words I learned in Swahili are:  
Simba, which means lion (obvious)  
Nala, which means gift (makes sense in a way)  
Sarafina, which means bright star (that's a nice name)  
Pumbaa, which means simpleton (insulting, but also makes sense)  
Sarabi which means mirage (another nice name)  
Rafiki, which means friend (good name for him)  
Shenzi, which means uncouth (also makes sense)  
Banzai, which means skulk or lurk (yet another one that makes sense)  
Timon is actually the only word I've learned that isn't African at all, it's Greek for 'he who respects' (which is a tad ironic).

Except for Timon's name these names really fit the characters don't they?


	6. First Hunt and Plan in Motion

Years later, it was now time for Kiara's first hunt. Simba waited at the end of the pathway leading to Pride Rock, while most of the lionesses waited in two lines on each side of the pathway. Rafiki was there too, on a rock at the beginning of the pathway, and the team and the four of us stuck to the ledge above the lionesses. Timon and Pumbaa also were there, close to Simba. Nala soon showed up and walked down the pathway to Simba. The lionesses then started talking to each other:

"This is Kiara's first hunt…."

"There she is."

Kiara, now an adult lioness, had just arrived.

"Kiara." Rafiki smiled

Zazu flew in and landed proudly on a branch. Overjoyed, Timon hugged Pumbaa. Kiara walked down the pathway towards her parents as the lionesses gave her words of encouragement:

"You can do it…."

"It's your day…."

"My how you've grown…."

Kiara reached her parents, and Nala went over to hug her.

"You'll do just fine." Nala said in an assuring tone.

"Daddy," Kiara said in a stern yet friendly tone. "You have to promise to let me do this on my own. Promise?"

Simba paused as he looked at Nala. Nala gave him a playful warning smile.

"All right," He sighed, a little reluctant. "I promise."

Overjoyed, Kiara went over to Simba to nuzzle him. This caused Timon and Pumbaa to look at each other and burst out crying. What do you know, sentimental old fools who aren't even old.

A.N. I affectionately call my dad a sentimental old fool whenever he cries at a happy scene in a movie.

Kiara then broke apart from Simba and looked as if she was waiting for something. I smiled, nodded, and to everyone else's great surprise Penny S left us and hopped onto Kiara's back! Well, they actually were used to Kiara and Penny S hanging out together, what had really surprised them was the fact that Penny S was wearing a safari outfit instead of her shirt/skirt combo!

"Wait a minute," Simba asked. "Where's Rudy?"

"Oh, he's keeping an eye out for Voldemort." I lied.

Simba only shrugged and looked back after Kiara and Penny S, but the other Superwolves and the rest of the team looked confused/shocked.

"Uh, can I talk to you a minute…privately?" Harry said to me in a hinting tone.

"Why?" I shrugged. "What…hey what are you doing? Quit that!"

Let's go!" Harry ordered as he forced me to the middle of the ledge with his head. "Move it! Hup two!"

Ron W, Hermione, and the rest of the team followed us.

"What's the big idea putting Rudy in danger?" Harry cried.

"*SHHH!*" I shushed him before whispering: "Over here!"

I lead everyone to the rock pile on the other side of the ledge.

"Relax everyone," I said to the other Superwolves and the rest of the team. "Rudy is not looking for Voldemort, that was just an alibi. Boss said that there's only one clone left and he's not going to attack us for a while since he's the weakest one of all."

Voldemort's clones got stronger as he got better at making them, so that's why each clone was different. The weakest one we hadn't dealt with yet, the next weakest we dealt with in the Beauty and the Beast Adventure, then the one in The Lion King Adventure, then the one in The Pagemaster Adventure, then the one in the Aladdin Adventure, and then the strongest one we dealt with in the Pocahontas Adventure.

"Rudy is really looking for Kovu." I finished.

"Rudy with Kovu?" Lizzie said. "Does this have anything to do with Penny being with Kiara?"

"That's right." I smiled. "As you know I did make a deal with Simba that if I send Penny with Kiara he'll promise not to send Timon and Pumbaa after her. Unfortunately he doesn't seem to be good at keeping promises."

Also unfortunately, the clip Camera took of Kiara getting spooked by Timon and Pumbaa and the fact that she wouldn't have gone into the Outlands if she didn't need to ditch Timon and Pumbaa didn't make the slightest impression on Simba. Even after Penny S started hanging out with Kiara Simba still sent Timon and Pumbaa after her. Kiara was actually all right with me sending Penny S out with her because not only did I let her know about it – which trust me makes a huge difference – but also because I mostly sent Penny S to play with Kiara and not protect her, that is except when it became necessary…which it never did. Kiara and Penny S soon became close friends, practically inseparable even, and Kiara even had fun learning almost all the things that Penny S knew, especially when they were looking for constellations in the stars together. The cool part was that Rudy and Snap sometimes joined in, which only added to the fun. This was why Kiara waited for Penny S and let her join the hunt without complaint. Kiara was not only glad of the company but she also knew that Penny S wouldn't affect her performance since it wasn't a burden to carry her. Besides, Penny S could just wait behind for whenever Kiara ran after a herd.

I then repeated Mufasa's plan of bringing Kovu and Kiara together, Rafiki's part and my help in it, and I also did a short version of the conversation Rafiki and I had.

"So Rudy and Penny are going to help Kovu and Kiara end up together." Misty said knowingly, looking a little romantic.

"That's right, I asked them about it the day after Rafiki and I talked about the plan, and they were more than happy to help." I continued. "And luckily the Chalk Stone God has done something in order to get Kovu to trust Rudy and let him near him. Early this morning Rudy and I woke up and prepared him for his mission to help get Kovu and Kiara together. He's somewhere out in the Savannah now."

"I know Rudy can pretty much take care of himself now," Hermione said. "But you should still radio in and see how he's doing."

At that I froze with realization. I reached into my magical pocket and pulled out…two walkie-talkies. Everyone frowned at me.

"Well we woke up at dawn and not being a morning person the idea of giving Rudy a walkie-talkie slipped my mind." I defended myself. "Don't worry though, I have a back-up plan."

At that Early the robin flew to us with Regular Camera strapped to her head.

"Early reporting for walkie-talkie duty." Early saluted.

We all chuckled.

"Just go find Rudy and assist him whenever he needs it." I saluted back.

Early saluted once more, and left in search of Rudy...

…And thanks to her sharp eyesight, soon found him partially hidden in tall grass a few miles away from Pride Rock. Rudy waved as he noticed her, and as she flew down next to him she noticed that he too had on his safari outfit – minus the jacket, Rudy had taken it off earlier. See, Rudy and Penny S had worn these safari outfits before, back during the adventure when they first met Barney.

Early didn't have to explain why she was there, because Rudy had already found out that he didn't have a walkie-talkie. He would've gone back to get one, but that would have meant running into Simba, which he didn't want to do considering that he and I didn't have time to work on an alibi together. The Voldemort alibi was just something I thought up on the spot.

"Kiara and Penny left a while ago so you should be able to see them now." Early said.

Rudy scanned the area with his binoculars, but instead of lioness and human he saw a dark red shape move through the grasses far in front of him. Early flew closer after Rudy mentioned the shape, and hid in the grass just beyond where the shape supposedly was. The shape's familiar looking tufted tail peeped out of the grass like a periscope along with a familiar looking meerkat head: Timon and Pumbaa. Darn it, Simba broke his promise again! Pumbaa's tail and Timon scanned the area until they glanced at each other…then they both ducked back into the grass as Timon gave a gasp of fright. They then 'hupped' as they sneaked through the grass, hid behind a thin tree, and then moved to another tree. Along with 'hups,' they then looked in opposite directions and switched directions before 'hupping' to a log supported by rocks with more rocks nearby. Timon hid in the log while Pumbaa hid – not very well – behind the rocks.

"Tanko Charlie Alfa." Timon said to Pumbaa, talking into an imaginary walkie-talkie. "What's your position?"

"Uh, upright, head turned slightly to the left, tail erect." Pumbaa replied, completely misunderstanding the term 'position'.

"Why do I bother?" Timon muttered to himself before looking into imaginary binoculars. "Aha." He half-whispered.

Timon had just spotted Kiara and Penny S.

Early flew back to Rudy and reported to him on what she saw. Rudy didn't seem happy to find that Timon and Pumbaa were here, but then he smiled when he managed to find Kiara and Penny S – who were partially hidden behind a huge boulder and waiting to hunt a nearby herd. Early decided to watch Kiara and Penny S, so she flew back to them and saw Kiara stepping carefully over some loose pebbles…until a back paw accidentally kicked a pebble. That alerted the herd, and they immediately stampeded away. Kiara paused for a few seconds so that Penny S could get off her back before springing after them.

To Early's surprise, Timon and Pumbaa somehow managed to make it in front of the herd. I mean they were almost behind the herd just a few minutes ago! Timon and Pumbaa scanned the area…until they saw the herd coming right at them! They screamed and ducked down.

"This must be where the deer and the antelope play!" Timon joked as the herd passed over them.

After the herd left, he and Pumbaa at first watched the herd leave, and then looked back to see what had caused the herd to run like that. They soon found out as the cause caused them to scream: Kiara and Penny S were glaring at them. Timon and Pumbaa grinned sheepishly as Timon chuckled nervously.

"Timon, what are you doing here?" Kiara and Penny S asked sternly.

Penny S took this time to climb back onto Kiara.

"Eh…shopping!" Timon lied. "We thought maybe a pelt for the den, some throw pillows, a little potpourri…."

"'Throw pillows'?" Penny S repeated. "Nice try."

"Darn it." Timon muttered as he swung an arm in a disappointed fashion.

Obviously you can't get throw pillows out in the Savannah.

"My father sent you," Kiara said, very hurt. "After he promised to let me do this on my own he lied."

"No," Timon argued gently. "He just doesn't want you to get hurt."

Penny S shook her head disappointedly. She and Kiara both knew better.

"I should've known he'd never give me a real chance," Kiara continued. "I'm going to do this on my own, **away** from the Pride Lands!"

Kiara dashed ahead past Timon and Pumbaa as she said that.

"Hey!" Timon called after them. "Wait, come back here!"

"Come back here!" Pumbaa called. "Oh Kiara, Penny!"

Timon and Pumbaa rushed after them as they repeatedly called their names, but they soon lost them in some tall grass.

"Kiara, Penny, come back!" Timon called. "Oh they're gone again!" He complained. "Somebody's got to get beepers for these kids!"

Timon and Pumbaa soon gave up, but Rudy and Early continued on. Fortunately Rudy had just drawn a motor scooter and helmet, so he was able to keep up with Kiara and Penny S easily. Along the way, Early asked Rudy if he managed to find out how Timon and Pumbaa made it past Kiara and Penny S and wind up in front of the herd. Rudy did: since he knew that Early was watching Kiara and Penny S he decided to watch Timon and Pumbaa. It turns out that after Timon spotted Kiara and Penny S he and Pumbaa snuck around behind them so that they could keep up with them, and of course that plan ended up backfiring.

After going on for a few miles, Kiara stopped and glanced back slightly with a frown before realizing something important: she was so upset and felt so betrayed that she had almost forgotten that Penny S was with her.

"Oh sorry Penny, I forgot to ask whether or not you minded going away from the Pride Lands." Kiara said.

"It's all right, keep going." Penny S smiled back.

Obviously she had her own reason for going away from the Pride Lands: it'll make it easier to find Kovu.

Rudy and Early soon passed Kiara and Penny S intentionally. Hiding themselves in the grass, they stopped to plan their next move…and to Early's surprise Rudy's Magic Chalk soaked up his scooter and helmet!

"How did you do that?" She asked.

"Miranda actually did that, it's just a temporary spell for Superwolf Adventures so that I wouldn't have to worry about restocking." Rudy explained.

Early nodded understandingly, and then looked around. She soon spotted two familiar lions.

"*Pssst!*" Early said. "Look over to your right Rudy, up there on the cliff."

"Ah," Rudy smiled. "Kovu and Zira, perfect…wait a minute, who are those lions?"

Early looked to Kovu and Zira's right and saw a lioness with bangs and a lion with a scraggly mane.

"That's Vitani and Nuka!" Early said. "Kovu's sister and half-brother!"

"Oh…say wait a minute, how do you know about them?" Rudy asked.

"Er…I'm the one Harry sent to spy on Zira." Early explained.

"Really? Why didn't he use a drone?" Rudy asked.

A.N. The other Superwolves are allowed to use the drones without permission, so I just assumed that's what Harry did when he spied on Zira.

"Harry said he wanted a witness for whatever he would find out from Zira." Early explained.

"But Harry never even mentioned you when he told us of Zira's plan."

"Not that kind of information, it was something else," Early explained. "Something that he'll mention once all of us – including the Outsider Pride – are together."

"Never mind then, that's not important right now." Rudy said. "What is important is figuring out why Vitani and Nuka have torches."

Sure enough both Vitani and Nuka had a burning branch in each of their mouths. Rudy's question was suddenly explained when Vitani and Nuka ran down the hill they were on and set fire to the Savannah!

"LET'S FIGHT FIRE!" Nuka laughed.

"Oh no!" Rudy gasped. "No!"

Nuka soon ran up another hill and started drawing an arc with his torch.

"A roasty toasty princess!" Nuka chanted in a singsong tone and ended in a chuckle. "A roasty toasty princess! A roasty toasty princess!"

Caught up in the evil excitement, Nuka didn't notice that he was unintentionally trapping himself in a circle of fire until it was to late.

"Hey is it hot in here or is that just me?" Nuka asked no one in particular.

He glanced around to find himself in the circle of….

"FIRE!" He cried, leaping high into the air. "AAAH!"

He soon landed far away from the fire circle. After recovering, he laughed when he saw that for himself.

"Come here!" Vitani hissed, grabbing Nuka and pulling him away.

Early left right after that and soon caught up with Rudy, who had left right after Nuka and Vitani set the Savannah on fire. Rudy fortunately managed to stay ahead of the fire while keeping Kiara and Penny S in his sights at the same time. Early didn't even need to try, so she was able to fly wherever she wanted.

Kiara and Penny S weren't too far off. Failing another hunting attempt they ran after the herd until the herd and a few other animals ran towards them. That's when they noticed the fire! They both gasped as they ran away. Rudy fortunately was nearby, so he was able to use a compass to pinpoint Kiara and Penny S's direction without getting caught in the fire. Early quickly flew over towards Zira and Kovu:

"The plan is in motion." Zira said to Kovu. "Go!"

Kovu left.

Early then quickly sent a mental message through Regular Camera to give to Camera. It was time to alert Simba and the rest of us….

_Back at Pride Rock…._

Simba was pacing back and forth on the ledge worriedly as Zazu and the rest of us looked on. To be perfectly honest, we would've reprimanded Simba about over-worrying if we didn't know about Zira's plan, though we still thought that Simba was being a worrywart. Zazu seemed to agree with us, though he probably wouldn't have used that particular term….

"Don't worry Simba," He said. "They'll be fine, what could happen?"

Camera, just receiving Early's message, would have burst Zazu's bubble, but he didn't need too.

"No, no." Simba gasped to himself, just noticing smoke over the horizon. "Kiara! Penny!" He cried.

Zazu flew up and gave a cry of shock.

"Zazu! Fly ahead! Find them!" Simba ordered franticly.

Nala and my friends and I followed Simba as Zazu flew ahead. Fortunately this time we remembered to bring Rip with us. Another thing we noticed was that Simba now seemed to worry about Penny just like he worries about Kiara. As later proven, that ended up being a bad thing.

_Back at the fire…._

Rudy was still trying to outrun the fire, but since the fire picked up quickly it was becoming harder and harder for him to do so. At one point he would have even been caught in a circle of fire if not for a break: a tree in front of him fortunately had a high root, so while the tree was burning the ground below the root wasn't…yet. Rudy started running towards the break in the fire, but time was starting to run out as a burning branch on the tree started to break! Rudy was now sliding quickly along the ground…just as the branch broke off! Fortunately, Rudy made it just in time, he zoomed under the root just a second before the branch broke it and set the ground on fire! Rudy quickly picked himself up…only to find himself trapped anyway! Early fortunately solved that dilemma by flying him over one of the fire walls. Luckily, Early ended up flying Rudy to Kovu! Rudy took out his compass and Magic Chalk, double checked the directions, and drew a communication system for both him and Early. The communication system was made up of an earpiece for Rudy and a wire for Regular Camera, and allowed Rudy and Early to communicate through thought waves. The other cool thing was that Rudy's earpiece had an invisibility feature so that Kovu wouldn't notice it.

"Kovu!" Rudy called.

Kovu, startled, turned and saw Rudy.

"Rudy what are you doing here?" Kovu asked, sounding more concerned than suspicious.

Good, apparently whatever the Chalk Stone God did to get Kovu to trust Rudy worked. The team and the four of us had already expected Kovu to remember Rudy's name, but as for Zira, well, we sure hoped not.

"I was out exploring before the fire started." Rudy lied. "Listen, I saw where Kiara and Penny went, they went that way!"

"Great, thanks!" Kovu said, apparently not knowing where to go beforehand. "Hop on!"

Rudy did, and Kovu rushed straight ahead.

Early flew ahead to find Kiara and Penny S….

Gasping "No!" along the way, Kiara and Penny S ran away from the flames desperately. There was one point when they accidentally ran into a smoke filled area and paused to cough, but fortunately they noticed a ledge nearby that could help them escape. Kiara leapt onto the ledge, but since it was high up she could only grab it with her front paws! Luckily the force of the leap caused Penny S to land on the ledge safely, but when she looked back she saw Kiara clinging desperately to the ledge! This actually provided a familiar picture, but Penny S was to concerned about Kiara to acknowledge it.

"Kiara!" Penny S cried as she ran forward in hopes of saving her new friend.

Fortunately, Kiara made it onto the ledge on her own, but unfortunately she accidentally crashed into Penny S! Penny S screamed as she flew slightly through the air and lost consciousness as she crashed into a rock and collapsed onto the ground!

"I'm…sorry…Penny," Kiara said weakly, overcome by heat and smoke. "I didn't…see…*oooh*."

She was going to say that she didn't see Penny S coming, but she fainted before she could finish. Kiara and Penny S both lay still on the ledge, but fortunately Early was able to lead Rudy and Kovu to them. Rudy immediately went over to Penny S, who only gave a slight cough when he tried to wake her up. Kiara, however, did wake up, but only slightly as she glanced at Kovu before fainting again. Kovu moved Kiara onto his back as Rudy picked up Penny S, and then Kovu let Rudy and Penny S onto Kiara before leaving. It was just in time, because the fire had just reached the ledge at this point!

Kovu continued running, stopping only briefly to close his eyes as a burning tree fell to the ground at released a few sparks. Rudy buried his face into Kovu and protected Penny S's head with his arms so that the sparks wouldn't hit her face. Unfortunately, Kovu's eyes still got a little hurt by the sparks, delaying him from reopening his eyes as he continued running. That also unfortunately resulted in Kovu running off a cliff that was nearby! Kovu gave a roar of shock and Rudy gave a cry of shock as they started to fall! All four of them tumbled down the cliff, fortunately landing in a pond instead of on hard ground.

Early at first tried to contact Rudy, but had to stop a second later as the communicators shorted out from Rudy's being in the water. Early quickly dove into the water – fortunately all of my cameras and drones are waterproof – and saw Rudy unconscious in the water! Luckily, he woke up a second later and swam to the surface. His first thought being for Penny S, he looked around and saw Penny S starting to sink! Kovu noticed the same thing happening to Kiara, so both he and Rudy grabbed their 'rescuees' and made their way to the shore. Early, who had left the water just as Rudy woke up, saw this from high up in the air and suddenly noticed Zazu flying underneath her!

"I must tell Simba!" He said to himself, noticing Kovu and the others; he quickly flew away.

Rudy, who made it to shore first, was very relieved when Penny S woke up a few seconds later after landing on the ground.

"Are you all right?" Rudy asked Penny S.

"I-I think so…." Penny S said weakly before noticing Rudy smiling at her. "Rudy!" She cried happily, hugging him; then she remembered: "Kiara?"

"Over there." Rudy said, pointing a bit farther down the shore.

"Hey guys," Early said. "I just saw Zazu a few moments ago, Simba's coming."

"Right." Rudy nodded as he and Penny S rushed over to their lion friends.

Meanwhile, safe on shore, Kiara was just starting to wake up….

"Wh-where am I?" Kiara asked weakly.

"You're safe," Kovu answered. "In the Pride Lands."

"In the Pride Lands? No." Kiara said to herself, now fully awake. "Why'd you bring me here? Who do you think you are?" She cried angrily.

Kovu's mouth dropped open.

"I think I'm the one that just saved your life!" Kovu snapped back, insulted.

"Look, I had everything under control." Kiara said sternly.

"Not from where I'm standing." Kovu smiled.

"Then move downwind." Kiara retorted, starting to leave.

Kovu quickly cut her off, so Kiara tried leaving in a different direction. Kovu cut her off again, and this happened two more times as Kiara tried to leap away and Kovu cut her off with leaps of his own.

"What're you doing?" Kovu asked.

Kiara's eyes widened as her attitude immediately changed.

"Kovu?" She smiled happily.

Kovu confirmed it with a smile of his own.

Apparently they went through that same routine back when they first met.

"Kiara! Penny!" Simba called, running up to them and giving a suspicious roar at Kovu.

Nala soon followed, except she didn't roar at Kovu.

"Kiara, Penny," Nala said, relieved, as she nuzzled Kiara. "You're both all right."

"Father (Simba) how could you break your promise?" Kiara and Penny S both glared sternly, still very hurt.

"What?" I cried as the rest of the team and the four of us looked shocked.

Okay, I know that's not exactly new news, but we couldn't help it Simba should've learned his lesson already!

"It's a good thing I did," Simba retorted sternly. "I almost lost you two. No more hunts for either of you not ever."

"SIMBA!" The rest of the team and the four of us snapped angrily.

The idiot, his breaking his promise is what caused him to almost lose Kiara in the first place!

"But I (she) was doing just fine!" Kiara and Penny S protested. "Even before Kovu…."

"Kovu?" Simba gasped.

He and Kovu both started roaring at each other.

"Well this is perfect." I muttered sarcastically.

Penny S grinned at me sheepishly. Simba of course wasn't supposed to find out that the lion's name is Kovu until much later.

"Simba." Nala said, shocked.

I then quickly whispered something to her….

"Kovu, no." Rudy said gently.

To all of our amazements, Kovu actually listened to Rudy and stopped roaring!

Shocked upon noticing Rudy, Simba immediately turned to our direction…but we were already gone.

"Where are the Superwolves?" He demanded.

"Miranda said that they were going to put out the fire." Nala explained.

Sure enough, we were flying above the cliff that Kovu and the others fell down earlier. Misty and Ash were using their water Pokémon to put out the fire.

"Uh, Miranda," Hermione said. "You know this is a stupid alibi."

There was a very slim chance of the fire spreading to the Pride Lands after all.

"Fine," I retorted. "What am I supposed to say? 'Sorry we can't tell you why Rudy's with Kovu because we don't want Kovu to find out that we're trying to keep him from killing you?' This was the only thing I could think of on short notice."

Hermione fell silent.

"Hey you!" Someone called from behind Simba.

We all turned and saw Rafiki on a rock.

"How dare you save the king's daughter and her friend!" Rafiki called out with friendly sarcasm.

"You saved them?" Simba repeated, both surprised and suspicious. "Why?"

"I humbly ask to join your Pride." Kovu said.

"No!" Simba snapped angrily. "You were banished with the other outsiders! So why are **you** with him?" He added angrily to Rudy.

Rudy looked at Simba with both shock and offense. Kovu, however, remained calm.

"I have left the Outsiders," Kovu explained. "I'm a rogue, and Rudy is with me because he helped me save your daughter and Penny. So judge me now, for who I am…or am I to be blamed for a crime I didn't commit?" He added sternly.

Simba roared as he started to pace back and forth. Obviously he was reluctant to trust Kovu.

"Simba, you owe him your daughter's life." Nala reminded Simba sternly.

Well at least Nala remembered that Penny S has a mom of her own (sarcasm). Sorry if I sounded mean, I was just mostly referring to Simba's attitude.

"Hm, yes sire," Zazu agreed, flying in. "Clearly we are in his debt, and royal protocol demands that all debts be paid. Though in this case you might want to make an exception."

Simba smirked, understanding what Zazu meant.

"My father's law will prevail," Simba said. "For now, I reserve judgment. We'll see who you really are…and whether or not you're right to trust him." He added to Rudy.

Penny S frowned at Simba while Rudy looked hurt, but Kovu smiled at Kiara who smiled back.

"*Hm*, riff-raff." Zazu muttered to himself as he flew after Simba.

We all soon followed….

Back at Pride Rock, Simba growled to himself as he absentmindedly paced past the den. He soon snapped out of it as he saw Kovu and Rudy preparing to enter the den, so with a warning roar he rushed up to them and cut them off. Rudy tried to enter the den again, hoping that Simba would give him a chance, but instead Simba roared another warning roar at him! Kovu looked at Simba with both disgust and shock as Rudy dropped his mouth open before looking extremely insulted. Both he and Kovu then walked over to a rock nearby and lay down as they looked away from the den. The rest of the team and the four of us arrived just as Simba refused to let Kovu and Rudy into the den, so I drove Rip into the den in order to have a 'discussion' with Simba.

"What's the matter with you, why won't you even let Rudy in here?" I said angrily.

"Well why his he hanging out with Kovu?" Simba retorted.

"Rudy is a good judge of character, considering that isn't it obvious that Kovu should be trusted?" I pointed out.

"Everyone can make mistakes." Simba replied in a tone that I considered mean.

"Especially you Simba!" I retorted angrily. "Especially you!"

I lifted Rip's seat, dove into my compartment, and slammed the seat back down with my tail at that.

"Remember Simba," Numbuh 274 said. "No one is always who they seem to be. Take me for example, even I thought I had turned teenager but that ended up to be mind control."

"You're really hurting Rudy with your stupid mistrust you know." Snap added bitterly.

"Give Kovu, and especially Rudy, a chance." Uncle said wisely. "You'll find that there's more to Kovu than you think, and Rudy's very wise for a kid you know."

"Yeah," Jade agreed. "Why else would the Chalk Stone God pick him to be king of ChalkZone?"

Everyone who spoke to Simba disappeared into their compartments after they were done, and then the rest of the team and the other Superwolves disappeared into their compartments as they gave Simba a cold look. Only Danny was left.

"Just remember how I'm treated at Amity Park. Truthfully, I empathize with Kovu and Rudy." Danny said just before he too disappeared into his compartment.

Simba only looked outside without a word.

Meanwhile, Kiara and Penny S had just caught up as Kovu and Rudy lay down near the rock, and sympathetically walked over to them.

"Hey, uh-heh, thanks for saving us today." Kiara smiled.

"Yes, thank you." Penny S smiled to Rudy.

"More than happy to." Rudy smiled back.

Penny S hugged him and he hugged her back.

"What kind of hunter are you anyway, princess?" Kovu scoffed slightly. "You almost got yourself and your friend killed out there."

Rudy and Penny S were so startled that they broke apart. Kiara was understandably startled to.

"What?" She said sternly.

"You wouldn't last three days on your own." Kovu added confidently.

"Oh, and I suppose **you** could teach me?" Kiara replied sarcastically.

"*Huh*, yeah." Kovu smiled smugly, starting to walk away.

"Kiara! Penny!" Simba called from inside the den.

"Coming!" Kiara and Penny S called back.

Kiara then quick marched around Kovu so that she ended up in front of him.

"All right, impress me," She smiled slyly. "We start at dawn."

"I look forward to it." Kovu replied so quietly that it was hard to tell whether he was being sarcastic or not, but I think he was.

"See you at dawn then." Rudy said to Penny S, looking a little sad.

"Good night." Penny S replied kindly as she hugged him again.

Rudy drew a couple of communicators for himself and Penny S. Penny S, after taking her communicator, then broke apart from Rudy in order to catch up with Kiara. Both Rudy and Penny S looked pained and sad as they disappeared from each other's sights. It obviously wasn't easy for them to be separated like this, but they endured it for Kovu and Kiara's sakes…and for Simba's life. Rudy, using his backpack as a pillow, lay down next to Kovu and fell asleep. Kovu at first fell asleep too, but then opened an eye and smiled as he affectionately placed an arm around Rudy in order to keep him warm. Early left for bed….


	7. Taming Kovu

Early, who always wakes up early in the morning obviously, flew outside to watch the sun come up. Then Kovu suddenly got up, interrupting here. Rudy shifted in his sleep, causing Kovu to look back for a moment, but since Rudy didn't wake up Kovu continued on and left Pride Rock.

"*Psssst!*" Early said quietly. "Rudy! Wake up!"

"Huh…? Wha…? Oh, good morning Early." Rudy yawned, just starting to wake up. "Kovu?" He said, now fully awake.

"Kovu left, follow me." Early said, flying in the direction that Kovu previously left in.

Rudy followed, and noticed Kovu going over to hide behind a rock. Confused, Rudy looked around and suddenly figured out what was going on when Simba started heading for the waterhole…which was right in front of the rock that Kovu was hiding behind!

"I better stop this." Rudy said to himself as he turned on his communicator….

A couple minutes later, Kovu bared his claws and fangs and prepared to attack Simba…until a pair of paws stopped him in his tracks! Startled, he looked up and saw Kiara in front of him with Penny S on her back!

"Good morning!" Kiara and Penny S laughed.

Penny S then got off Kiara and went right over to Rudy, who was now suddenly behind Kovu.

"I'm ready for my first lesson," Kiara continued. "Surprised you huh?"

Instead of replying, Kovu looked back at the waterhole…Simba had disappeared! Meanwhile, Rudy and Penny S put their communicators into Rudy's backpack.

"Hey, come on, let's go." Kiara said, walking around Kovu and leaving.

Fortunately she hadn't the slightest hint that she had just helped save her father from her lion friend.

Rudy and Penny S high-fived each other and followed Kiara just before Kovu reluctantly followed with an angry growl to himself. Early followed too….

_Later…._

Hours after dawn, my friends and I soon woke up and looked for Rudy, Penny S, and their lion friends. Thanks to my sense of smell, we soon found them. Kovu was lying on the ground, with Rudy and Penny S resting against him, and Early was resting on the tall grasses nearby, but Kiara was completely absent from our sights. We didn't have to wonder where she was though, because we could hear her moving through the grass right behind Kovu, Rudy, and Penny S. We also could hear her breathing hard and whispering "Ow." now and then. Kovu, Rudy, and Penny S also heard her.

"Three…two…one…." Kovu whispered to himself.

"Gotcha!" Kiara cried as she pounced upon Kovu and Rudy and Penny S.

Not, they ducked down so that Kiara ended up soaring through the air a couple of feet before landing onto the ground on her back.

"You could hear me, oh *huh*." Kiara said knowingly, slightly amused, as she saw her friends smiling at her.

"*Heh*, only a lot." Kovu replied in an "Uh, duh." tone. "You're still breathing too hard, relax, feel the Earth under your paws so it doesn't make noise."

Kovu quietly shifted the dirt with his claws as he said that. Kiara followed his example and did it too. Then hearing bird sounds, we directed our attention to a flock that was just landing over the hill in front of us.

"*Shhh.*" Kovu whispered. "Watch the master, and learn,"

This time without Rudy riding him, Kovu sneaked over to the bottom of the hill, and then quietly ran up the hill. As he pounced over the hill with a roar, someone screamed an all too familiar scream.

"If that is who I think it is." Chester muttered.

We quickly started to catch up with Kovu….

"Please don't eat me!" The owner of the scream pleaded desperately. "I-I never really met your tyrant! Oh, I mean Scar, Scar, oh heck of a guy! A little moody but…."

He was cut off as the rest of us caught up with Kovu. Sure enough it was….

"Timon, what are you doing here?" Kiara and Penny S complained, having enough of all of this.

"Kiara, Penny, Wolves, thank goodness, oh." Timon said, relieved. "Hey, for once we're not following ya two, this just happens to be the best smorgasbord in the Pride Lands! BUGS EVERYWHERE!"

Sure enough, the ground was full of worms. The only problem was that the birds that had previously landed there were taking all the eating spots. Timon obviously had already noticed this.

"But you don't call for a reservation and…yeesh! Get outta here ya scavengers!" Timon yelled to the birds, trying to scare at least one away. "Go on, shoo, shoo!"

The bird in front of him responded by biting his nose with its beak. Timon clutched his nose as he moaned in pain. A bit ways away, we suddenly noticed Pumbaa also trying to scare the birds away.

"YAAAAAH!" Pumbaa cried as he chased a particular group of birds on a mound. "YAAAAAH!"

Unfortunately, the birds only flew in the air for a few moments and then re-landed each time Pumbaa ran past them. Kiara and the rest of us couldn't keep from giggling/chuckling at that, except for Kovu who didn't even seem to understand what was so funny – in a confused way that is.

"Oh Timon I'm getting tired," Pumbaa moaned as a group of birds rested on top of him. "I gotta lose some pounds."

Okay, that is both obvious and ironic at the same time. Hey, double irony!

Timon climbed onto Pumbaa's snout.

"Shoo!" Timon yelled to the birds on Pumbaa as he chased them away. "Go on, shoo! Shoo!"

"Hey, maybe he can help." Pumbaa suggested, referring to Kovu. "Do you think?"

"Shoo!" Timon yelled to one last bird that was on Pumbaa's tail. "Oh yeah, there's an idea, right," He then agreed sarcastically. "Let the vicious outsider…hey wait, I have an idea! What if he helps?"

Pumbaa at first looked proud as he gave a nod, but then….

"What?" He said sternly.

"You wanna lend a voice?" Timon asked Kovu.

Kovu only stared at him blankly.

"Huh? *Grr, grr,* roar! Work with me!"

"Uh? Huh?" Kovu said, not understanding what Timon wanted.

"Like this." Kiara explained before she roared.

That scared about half of the birds away.

"Whoo-hoo!" Timon cheered, leaping back onto Pumbaa. "Come on, do it again, do it again!"

They did it again, except this time Kovu roared. That scared away the rest of the birds.

"Yee-ha!" Timon cheered before sending a raspberry at the flock.

Rudy leapt onto Kovu, Penny S leapt onto Kiara, and I left Rip in order to join the fun: I love chasing birds! Snap wanted to join in too, so I let him onto my back just before Kovu, Kiara, and I started the chase. Rip and Early both followed us in the air, and everyone was laughing – except for Kovu that is, he just looked confused.

"Why are we doing this?" He asked Kiara. "What's the point of this training?"

That caused all of us to laugh.

"Training?" Kiara, Rudy, Penny S, Snap and I laughed. "This is just for fun!"

"Fun?" Kovu repeated, confused.

Okay, despite his living with fun-less Outsiders his whole life we still couldn't help but be shocked at that: Kovu doesn't know what fun is? Well, he's going to find out.

"Yeesh, here." Timon said as he grabbed onto a bird by the legs.

George did the same thing after putting his Zooper Plane on autopilot.

"You've got to get out more often." George remarked to Kovu.

"Fun! Yee-ha!" Timon agreed

They then both started cheering as they let go of the birds and started falling through the air. Timon landed safely on Pumbaa, while George landed safely in his Zooper Plane.

"Yee-ha." Kovu said, staring to get the idea. "Yee-ha!"

Laughing and cheering, we all then chased the birds into an area made up of rocky walls and started running around a few corners. Unfortunately, we were having so much fun that we didn't notice that we were heading for something gray and large.

"Yee-ha!" Kovu cheered again.

Now just noticing the large gray thing ahead of us, we all screamed as we slid to a complete stop. Well, truthfully I don't think you can slide on air, so Rip and the Zooper Plane just coasted to a complete stop. Actually, the stop was so sudden that Timon accidentally 'whip-lashed' into Pumbaa's mouth. We had every right to scream, because right in front of us was AN ANGRY HERD OF RHINOS!

"Uh-oh." Kiara said as Timon popped his head out of Pumbaa's mouth.

The birds now sent **us** a raspberry as the rhinos snorted furiously at us! We screamed again, and I leapt back onto Rip while Timon 'whip-lashed' back onto Pumbaa's back as we all started running/flying away.

"Bad day bad day bad day!" Jackie cried automatically as Rip rounded the corner.

Now Kiara and Penny S rounded the corner, with Kiara looking scared and Penny S smiling. Kovu and Rudy soon followed, except they were both smiling.

Penny S and Rudy had smiled because both they had dealt with worse in ChalkZone, so this was more exhilarating than scary. Kovu had smiled because he had never done anything like this before, meaning he was enjoying himself, but Kiara was scared because she knew how dangerous stampeding rhinos could be.

"Hey rhinos!" Timon teased as he and Pumbaa rounded the corner – along the wall that is.

The rhinos soon followed, but missed those of us on Rip because we were high up in the air. As the rhinos disappeared, we saw that they also missed Kovu, Kiara, Rudy, Penny S, and Timon and Pumbaa because the six of them were safe in a crevice in a wall. The six of them laughed and caught their breath.

"What a blast!" Kovu and Rudy cheered.

The two of them then laughed as they realized that they had said it at the same time.

"Oh, sorry." Pumbaa replied sheepishly, thinking that he had farted again.

That caused all of us to laugh.

"You're okay kids." Timon said as he noogied Kovu and Rudy on the heads.

"Hey!" Kovu complained.

"You're okay." Timon repeated.

"Hey." Kovu and Rudy said in a gentler tone as Kovu realized that he actually liked that.

The six of them then struggled to get out of the crevice, but when Timon and Pumbaa made it out Kovu and Kiara almost accidentally 'kissed' as they twisted around. Embarrassed, they both started chuckling nervously.

"Kovu (Kiara)." Their riders choked out from behind them.

Rudy and Penny S were almost crushed against the wall behind Kovu and Kiara.

"S-s-sorry." Kiara stammered to both Kovu and Penny S.

"Y-yes, s-s-sorry." Kovu stammered to Kiara and Rudy.

Rip and the rest of us smiled happily: things were starting to go right.

"Hey, are you guys coming or what?" Timon called, apparently not realizing what had almost happened.

Smiling, we all followed, and played throughout the rest of the day.

Well not quite, there was more 'training Kiara' as well. Being an expert stalker/pouncer I helped Kovu teach Kiara – I had not only learned through Superwolf training but also through personal experience, even my Main World self likes to 'stalk and grab'. At one point, I decided to fully show my stalking abilities by stalking around Kovu, Kiara, and the team and other Superwolves. Timon and Pumbaa had left to get back to the 'smorgasbord'.

Kovu, Kiara, and the team and other Superwolves all waited in a round clearing as I disappeared into the grasses. Many minutes passed….

"Boy, Miranda has been gone for a long time." Kirsten commented, a little tense.

Suddenly, in the opposite direction of the one I left in, some sort of sizzling sound was heard!

"A carpet viper!" Eliza realized.

Everyone nervously listened to the sizzles and what sounded like the carpet viper's strikes, not knowing whether it was striking at me or not.

"I wonder if I should prepare a remedy for snake bites." Josefina said nervously.

"That wouldn't be a bad idea." Kaya agreed.

Unexpectedly, someone pounced Hermione from the opposite side of the clearing, causing her to scream and startle Kiara, Kovu, and the rest of the team! When they looked they saw me sitting on Hermione's back!

"Hi guys, did I miss anything?" I grinned.

"Yeah," Haddock said, stunned. "You missed an unbelievable pounce."

"What are ya kidding? I've got the best seat in the house!" I joked as I pointed to Hermione. "Ha!"

"Oh ha-ha very funny..." Hermione said sarcastically. "Now get off me will ya!" She snapped.

Still laughing, I got off her. Irritated, Hermione attempted to pounce me but I ducked and she ended up sliding on her chest and muzzle, back legs in the air and front legs dragging along behind her. This amused Kiara, Kovu, and the rest of the team.

"Not. A. Word." Hermione said sternly.

"Wasn't gonna say anything." Numbuh Two tried not to laugh.

"How did you escape the viper?" Numbuh Three asked me.

"Vip-oh so that's what that sizzling sound was, I was wondering about that." I said.

Kiara, Kovu, and the team and other Superwolves looked at me with confusion, confusing me in return.

"What?" I shrugged.

"Weren't you over there at all?" Numbuh Five asked.

"No, I was there all along." I pointed to where I had come from when I pounced Hermione.

"But we thought you were stalking us." Addy said.

"Nah, I stayed in the same place the whole time." I grinned. "Reverse psychology."

Most of the team faceplamed or groaned, but some were amused.

"Good one." Numbuh One smirked.

"Very clever, I've got to remember that one." Kovu smiled.

"Let's see if you can get us again." Kit grinned.

"All right." I smirked back

I went back into the grasses, but this time the team outsmarted me by looking in every direction. I still had one last trick though...

A few minutes later, something fell onto Hermione from the air. It was me again.

"Nice move." Molly nodded, impressed.

"Superwolf training did teach us how to attack from all angles." I grinned.

"Why me?" Hermione groaned.

"Because you're the only female I can pounce without harming." I said. "Pouncing the boys would feel a little weird."

"She's got a point there." Ron W nodded.

"Maybe she can pounce Edith Eddleton for me." Samantha chuckled. "She could use a serious attitude adjustment."

"Eh, it'd take more than a pounce to adjust that snob." I shook my head. "Besides, I might accidentally hurt her."

Samantha just grinned and winked, hinting that she was joking.

The rest of us chuckled and went back to teaching Kiara how to stalk and pounce. Kiara ended up being a fast learner.


	8. Upendi

Kiara, Kovu, Rudy, Penny S, and the rest of us were all lying on the grass and gazing at the stars. Kovu, Kiara, Rudy and Penny S were looking for shapes in the stars.

"Did you see that? Did you see that?" Kovu said quietly.

"What?" Kiara said.

"Oh wow look at that, it's a little birdy!" Kovu said.

"Oh yeah." Kiara laughed. "You're right. Oh look, there's one that looks like a baby rabbit, see the fluffy tail?"

"Yeah." Kovu said. "Hey, there's one that looks like two lions killing each other over a scrap of meat, ha!" He laughed. "I've never done this before."

"Really?" Kiara said. "My father and Penny and I used to do this all the time, he says 'the great kings of the past are up there'." She added, sounding a little amused.

"Do you think Scar's up there?" Kovu asked.

Shocked, neither Kiara nor the rest of us answered, except for one….

"Ha! Yeah right!" Numbuh Four cried out.

Obviously he still hasn't forgiven Scar for almost killing him the last time we were here, but then it's impossible – and ridiculous – to forgive a villain.

Kovu, sad, got up and sat down a few inches away. Numbuh Four felt a little bad, but he wasn't going to admit it or apologize.

"He wasn't my father but he was still…part of me." Kovu admitted sadly.

"My father said that there was a darkness in Scar that he couldn't escape." Kiara said as she joined Kovu.

Rudy and Penny S soon joined them too.

"Maybe there's a darkness in me too." Kovu said sadly.

"I don't think so." Rudy smiled.

Kovu smiled back gratefully as Kiara nuzzled him comfortingly. Kovu nuzzled her back. Rudy and Penny S put their arms around each other and smiled.

Meanwhile, I smelled Simba behind us nearby, so without the others noticing I left and crouched down near a hill where Simba sat.

"Father, I am lost," Simba said into the heavens. "Kovu is one of them, Scar's heir, how can I accept him? And Rudy, why would he hang out with Scar's heir in the first place? He should know better…."

"Simba?" Nala said, just appearing from behind Simba.

"I was seeking council from the great kings." Simba explained.

"And did they help?" Nala asked, both sounding and looking amused.

"Silent as stars." Simba sighed. "My father would never…."

"Oh my Simba," Nala interrupted. "You want so much to walk the path expected of you…perhaps Kovu does not."

"What?" Simba said, startled. "How do you know him?"

"I can see them down there just as easily as you can." Nala explained. "Get to know him and see. And Miranda's right, Rudy is a very good judge of character, give him a chance."

They left as Simba smiled, but I sighed disappointedly as I rejoined my friends.

"At least Nala's wise." I said to myself.

Unexpectedly, Kovu stopped nuzzling Kiara as if something was wrong.

"What's wrong?" Kiara asked.

"Nothing." Kovu lied.

"Kovu." Kiara said.

"It's just that, my whole life I've been trained to…."

The team and the four of us dropped our mouths open in shock: Kovu was about to tell Kiara about Zira's plan! We waited for him to finish, but instead….

"Nothing." Kovu finished. "I…we've gotta go, come on Rudy." He said as he used his tail to pull Rudy away from Penny S.

Apparently, he wanted to talk with Rudy privately.

"Kovu, wait." Kiara and Penny S pleaded.

Kovu and Rudy both sadly looked back at Kiara and Penny S's sad faces, but reluctantly turned back around and continued on. Rudy, understandably, didn't want to be separated from Penny S like this, but he knew that it would be better for the plan – and for Simba's life – if he stuck with Kovu, so he sadly hung his head and followed Kovu. However, we knew that he couldn't ignore the pain of being separated from Penny S for long, so we were patient and watched to see what he would do. Sure enough….

"Uh, Kovu…." Rudy began, about to explain that he wanted to be with Penny S.

Kovu looked at Rudy sympathetically. He knew that Rudy wanted to be with her, but he still needed someone to confide into before he could talk with Kiara.

"And where are **you** going?" A familiar voice unexpectedly asked as a monkey's hand popped out of the grass and stuck itself into Kovu's face!

Kovu and Rudy were startled at first, but not for long since Kovu was too miserable to stay shocked and since Rudy recognized the voice almost instantly.

"Rafiki." He chuckled to himself.

"Uh, nowhere." Kovu and Rudy both said together, except Rudy said it in a joking tone and Kovu said it in a mutter.

"Ha! That's what you think!" Rafiki disagreed as he popped in and out of the grass like a jack-in-the-box!

Kiara and the rest of us soon caught up with Kovu and Rudy.

"Uh, remind me to ask him how he did that." I said to the team and other Superwolves.

Even Rudy and Snap nodded, after all this sort of thing in ChalkZone is common but it's astounding in a world where animals aren't even anthros!

Kovu, even though he was startled by Rafiki's 'abilities', had a different question.

"Who was that?" He asked Kiara.

"A…friend of the family." Kiara explained, slightly amused.

Suddenly hearing humming, we turned towards the direction of the sound and saw Rafiki on Kovu's back and playfully swishing Kovu's tail!

"Come on! You follow Rafiki, he knows the way!" Rafiki laughed, playfully tugging Kovu's tail before running off.

"The way to where?" Kovu muttered.

"You follow, you see!" Rafiki called from a faraway cliff that he somehow got onto!

"How'd he get up there?" Jonny asked.

None of us could answer him.

"I wish we were on the ledge below Rafiki." Timmy said.

Obviously, Cosmo and Wanda granted that wish.

"Hurry now!" Rafiki said as he swung along the cliff's wall with a vine.

"Kovu come on!" Kiara, Rudy, and Penny S laughed.

We all followed Rafiki around a corner, which he swung around laughing, and found ourselves in front of a beautiful – and might I say, romantic? – pond with a waterfall.

"Where's he taking us?" Kovu asked as we stopped.

"Oh just a special place in your heart," Rafiki explained from the trees above them.

He then hung down from a branch and used his hands to make Kovu and Kiara look at each other. Rudy and Penny S watched Rafiki do that and then looked at each other.

"Called Upendi." Rafiki finished, smiling.

Kovu and Kiara tenderly touched noses as Rudy and Penny S gazed lovingly at each other. We all then were pulled into a slowly spinning giant pink heart….

…And appeared out of a heart shaped cave that had a river flowing out from it! Kovu, Kiara, Rudy, and Penny S were on a heart shaped leaf-boat on the river, while the rest of us were still riding Rip in the air. Kovu and Rudy were on one side of the boat, while Kiara and Penny S were on the other side. Since this was for Kovu and Kiara – and, in a way, also for Rudy and Penny S – Rip and the rest of us decided to be out of Camera's shot high in the air. Rafiki was riding on top of the boat and he started singing:

RAFIKI:  
There's a place where the crazy moon  
Makes the monkeys sing and the baboons swoon  
And the sultry scent of the lotus bloom  
Will carry you away

Where the hippos swing from the jungle vines  
And the rhinos rhumba in a conga line  
And the pink flamingoes are intertwined  
As the stars come out to play

Rafiki basically sings what happens, so I don't need to describe everything. However I will say this, the lotus bloom that one of the baboons gave to Rafiki carried away Kovu all right: it caused him to sneeze! Also, the stars appeared when the rhinos accidentally 'congaed' into the flamingoes.

RAFIKI AND ANIMALS:  
In Upendi

RAFIKI:  
Where the passionfruit grows sweet

RAFIKI AND ANIMALS:  
And it's so divine  
That you lose your mind

RAFIKI:  
As it sweeps you off your feet

As Rafiki mentioned the passionfruit, a whole bunch fell down from the branches above them. Rafiki caught four and offered them to Kovu, Kiara, Rudy, and Penny S, but Kovu refused.

RAFIKI AND ANIMALS:  
In Upendi

RAFIKI:  
Without a worry or a care  
It just takes two  
To make it true  
You heart will lead you there

Rafiki shrugged and tossed the remaining passionfruit aside – and noticed that they were heading for a very small waterfall near a plant with pink heart shaped leaves. Rafiki then steered around the bend, and grabbed one of the heart-leaves as they jumped down the waterfall – and stuck the leaf over Kovu's head. Kiara laughed as Kovu, annoyed, pushed the leaf off his head.

"Where is it?" Kiara asked Rafiki, still amused.

Rafiki covered Kiara's eyes with one of his hands and cleared an ear with a finger from the other hand.

"No place you don't take with you." Rafiki replied.

Kiara laughed again.

Then, as Rafiki continued singing, all of them fell off a cliff!

You better watch your step 'cause the path is steep  
Better hold your breath 'cause the water's deep  
It's a long way down over Lovers' Leap  
But falling's half the fun!

As Kovu and the others soared down the cliff, they landed in a hollow rock protruding from the cliff wall that was filled with water. Rafiki, as he fell past, grabbed the vine hanging from the side of the hollow rock and a latch at the bottom opened. Kovu and the others fell through the opened latch and landed back in their boat on the river. They all laughed, even Kovu.

Rafiki, however, somehow ended up on a leaf and floated gently down. Then when he mentioned about falling being half the fun, he popped the leaf and fell the rest of the way. Wait...he popped the leaf?

RAFIKI AND ANIMALS:  
In Upendi

RAFIKI:  
Where the passionfruit grows sweet

RAFIKI AND ANIMALS:  
And it's so divine  
That you lose your mind  
As it sweeps you off your feet  
In Upendi

This time, as the passionfruit fell from the branches again, Rafiki didn't need to offer anyone any because they were catching the fruit for themselves. Kiara, Rudy, and Penny S caught a couple each with their paws/hands for fun, but one landed in Kovu's mouth and he accidentally tried to swallow it without chewing it first. Kiara noticed, and helped him out by kissing him on the cheek, which caused the fruit to 'melt' down Kovu's throat.

RAFIKI:  
Without a worry or a care  
It just takes two  
To make it true  
Your heart will take you there

Rafiki too caught some, but it was also just for fun for him since he was balancing a whole bunch on his nose and on a few fingers. He then let the passionfruit fall off, and kicked one into a flock of butterflies with his heel. The butterflies flew around Kovu, Kiara, Rudy, and Penny S, and Rafiki made Kovu and Kiara look at each other again. This made for an interesting scene transition, because Kovu and Kiara's noses, when placed together, formed a heart shape that turned into a scene switch. Inside the scene switch, Rafiki floated down on a leaf.

You can beat the bush like there's no tomorrow  
From Tanganyika to Kilimanjaro  
But you'll find Upendi wherever you are, oh  
Underneath the sun

The scene then switched to Rafiki congaing with other animals – Camera moved along the long row of animals until he got back to Rafiki – and a mountain growing underneath Rafiki. Rafiki flipped open the top of the mountain, causing more butterflies to fly out, and then pulled down the sun. Hearts flew out from the sun like rays, as the passengers in the leaf-boat floated in a pond in the foreground.

"Upendi, it means 'love' doesn't it?" Kiara smiled knowingly.

"Welcome to Upendi!" Rafiki cheered in front of them, doing his trademark 'jack-in-the-box' move again.

RAFIKI AND ANIMALS:  
In Upendi

At that, a fountain of water spurted up and supported the leaf-boat and it's passengers high into the air!

RAFIKI:  
Where the passionfruit grows sweet

RAFIKI AND ANIMALS:  
And it's so divine  
That you lose your mind  
As it sweeps you off your feet  
In Upendi  
Without a worry or a care  
It just takes two  
To make it true  
Your heart will take you there

As the Kovu and the other passengers looked around, they saw a conga line of animals to their left. Watching the conga line, they noticed that Rafiki was in a passionfruit tree at the edge of the pond and throwing fruit to each couple, causing the couples to leap backwards into the water. Deciding that it looked like fun, Kovu and the others leapt down from the fountain and landed in the pond below. They then climbed out of the water and joined the conga line, and did the same thing that the other couples were doing as they too caught the passionfruits.

They soon found out that the pond opened into a water-ride of a river, which they floated down on until they came to another cliff. They started to fall, until pink heart shaped leaf-parachutes magically opened up from behind the couples Kovu and Kiara, and Rudy and Penny S. Joining other parachuted couples, they just hung in the air for a while. Rafiki was there too, except he was on a parachuted cloud and by himself.

We all then magically appeared back on the Pride Lands. The scene transition for this one was pretty cool: the parachuted couples – and Rafiki – turned into heart shaped constellations. Camera then zoomed down to where Kovu, Kiara, and their riders were singing "In Upendi." together.

"Goodnight!" Rip and the rest of us called down as we flew ahead to Pride Rock.

"Goodnight!" Kovu and the others called back before resuming "In Upendi."

They continued on until they were at Pride Rock, and Rudy and Penny S got down off Kovu and Kiara.

"Goodnight." Kovu and Rudy said as the two couples hugged.

"Goodnight." Kiara and Penny S smiled back.

Kiara and Penny S's faces then fell as they at first looked at the den and then turned around and looked behind their boyfriends. Kovu and Rudy followed their gaze and saw why their girlfriends looked sad: there was the rock that Kovu and Rudy had to sleep by. The four of them reluctantly looked away from each other and Rudy and Penny S gave a sad sigh as the four of them headed for their sleeping areas. Rudy glanced a loving gaze back at Penny S, and Kiara and Penny S gave a sigh of love as they looked back at their boyfriends.

Simba, who had just arrived, noticed this. He looked at Kovu and Rudy, looked at the den, and then looked back at Kovu and Rudy and smiled. Simba approached Kovu and Rudy, causing them to look up

"It's kinda cold out tonight huh?" Simba smiled. "Come on in."

Kovu and Rudy smiled back and followed Simba into the den.

Things where finally looking up….


	9. Almost Everything is Ruined

Early, once again, flew out of the den along with Regular Camera. Not far behind was Kovu, who started talking to himself:

"Okay, I have to tell her today." Kovu said. "Where do I start…? 'Kiara, Zira had a plot and I was part of it, but I don't wanna be because…it's because I love you'. She'll never believe me, but I gotta try…." Kovu started to turn back to the den, but….

"You can do it." Rudy smiled, unexpectedly appearing in front of Kovu.

"*Gaah!*" Kovu cried, startled. "Geez, don't do that!"

"Sorry." Rudy chuckled.

Kovu chuckled back, and then looked sad.

"I guess you overheard what I said." Kovu said sadly.

"Eh, I already knew." Rudy shrugged.

"What? How…?" Kovu asked.

"Harry spied on Zira that day we first met you two and found out." Rudy explained, smiling.

"So…you and Penny were only hanging out with us to keep me from killing Simba?" Kovu asked sadly.

"Yes…and no." Rudy smiled. "Later I also hung out with you because I trusted you, and I could tell that we could become good friends."

Kovu looked relieved.

"So, was the whole 'you and Penny hanging out with Kiara and I' Harry's plan?" Kovu asked. "And I'm also guessing Rafiki had something to do with it."

"No, it was Miranda's plan," Rudy corrected. "But you're right about Rafiki. He knew about the plan and at first thought it wouldn't work, but in the end decided to give it a try. Actually, the 'you and Kiara ending up together' part was Mufasa's idea. He's Simba's dad."

"Gosh," Kovu said, looking amazed. "Well if a great king of the past thinks Kiara and I should be together then it must be true."

Kovu started for the den again, but then stopped.

"Oh, and Rudy?" Kovu said before hugging him. "Thank you."

Rudy smiled and went with Kovu to the den. Fortunately, Kiara and Penny S were the first ones they met.

"Kiara," Kovu said. "I need to talk to you."

"Kiara, Penny, I don't want you two talking with them," Simba said sternly, suddenly approaching them. "**I** want to talk with them." He smiled.

Kiara, Penny S, and Rudy smiled, but Kovu looked at Simba with astonishment. Rudy climbed onto Kovu's back, and the five of them – Early and Regular joined them – left. Kiara and Penny S smiled after them.

_Later, far away from the Pride Lands…._

Simba was telling Kovu all about Scar.

"…Scar couldn't let go of his hate, and in the end it destroyed him." Simba finished.

"I've never heard the story of Scar that way." Kovu admitted. "He truly was a killer."

They looked around, and realized that they were in one of the areas where the fire burned about two days ago.

"Fire is a killer." Simba added. "Sometimes what's left behind can grow better than the generation before…" He pawed at the ground to reveal a baby plant. "…If given the chance."

Unexpectedly, the four of them heard an evil chuckle!

"No, oh no." Kovu whispered under his breath, suddenly scared. "No."

Zira and the Outsiders had arrived!

"Why Simba." Zira smiled evilly.

"Zira." Simba almost hissed.

"What are you doing out here? And so…alone." She chuckled evilly.

Simba glared at her while Rudy and Kovu looked scared. It may seem strange for Rudy to be scared considering he has always been brave against Voldemort, but he was starting to get a bad feeling, and for a very good reason….

"Well done Kovu – Rudy?" Zira suddenly said in a confused tone, obviously not expecting to see Rudy there.

Unfortunately, instead of continuing with her confusion she went back to talking to Kovu!

"Just like we always planned." She smirked evilly.

And also unfortunately, Simba completely misunderstood that sentence!

"You two!" He gasped angrily.

"No!" Kovu and Rudy cried desperately. "We didn't have anything to do with this!"

"Attack!" Zira ordered.

Nuka started the attack, but Simba swiped him away before Nuka could even strike.

"NO!" Kovu and Rudy cried, rushing in to save Simba.

Kovu was a little hesitant with helping Simba, since he's known the Outsiders his whole life, but Rudy leapt in with out any hesitation at all. After drawing a whip, Rudy leapt and whipped at the Outsiders. Unfortunately, the lionesses were attacking Simba so quickly that he only managed to scratch a few. At one point, an Outsider struck Kovu aside, causing him to accidentally grab Rudy with a paw and also causing to two of them to be knocked out as Kovu hit his head on a rock and Rudy hit his head onto the ground.

The Outsiders resumed the fight, causing Simba to fall/tumble down a cliff! He landed on the ground with a hard, painful thump, and looked up to see Zira and the Outsiders climbing down the cliff.

"Yes, we've got him." Zira said.

Early quickly flew back to Kovu and Rudy as the Outsiders chased Simba away.

"Rudy!" Early called; Rudy didn't move. "RUDY!"

That woke Rudy up…and Kovu too.

"Wha…oh geez, Simba!" Rudy cried.

Rudy climbed back onto Kovu and they started to leave…when Rudy stopped Kovu so that he could draw a flying device on him! As Rudy turned it on, Kovu smiled. As he was thinking: this looked like fun. Shockingly, Kovu actually leapt down the cliff without even waiting for Rudy's instructions! Rudy quickly turned on the flying device and Kovu laughed as they flew after Simba and his assassinators. Rudy then asked why Kovu didn't wait for instructions, and Kovu replied that he already knew what was going to happen, and that Rudy would never let them get hurt. Rudy was only speechless with astonishment. So was Early for that matter, after all how come Kovu was acting like he's always known about Rudy being able to operate any kind of vehicle?

Simba, meanwhile, had been chased to a rock/log wall, and after a few moments hesitation he climbed up the wall. Luckily, a log that Simba knocked down prevented the Outsiders from following him. About halfway up the wall, Simba noticed Kovu and Rudy on the ledge above and to the side of the wall. Rudy had already gotten rid of the flying parts, and was talking to Kovu before they turned to notice Simba looking at them.

"Simba!" Kovu and Rudy said, concerned.

Zira also noticed them.

"Get him Kovu, get him!" She ordered. "Do it, now!"

Kovu instead left and disappeared as Rudy climbed down the ledge and went over to the top of the wall.

"I'll do it for **you** mother!" Nuka cried, leaping onto the wall.

Rudy looked at the scene with shock…and confusion, this somehow seemed familiar. It didn't take long for him to realize that this was almost like the time the hyenas chased Simba up that rocky wall after the stampede long ago!

"Mother, are you watching?" Nuka asked. "I'm doing it for you…and I'm doing it for me." He added to himself.

He then grabbed Simba by a back paw, causing Simba to wince with pain!

"This is my moment of glory!" Nuka said evilly.

Boy, this really was déjà-vu!

"NO!" Rudy cried, suddenly knocking down a log with his body!

The log in turn hit Nuka the same time he broke through the log he was standing on!

"No!" Zira cried, watching her son fall.

Fortunately, all this happened so fast that she didn't connected Nuka's fall to Rudy.

Nuka and Rudy both started falling. Rudy cracked through another log with his body, and a different log crushed Nuka against the wall. Luckily, Rudy ended up landing far from Nuka, preventing Zira from finding him.

Simba made it to the top of the wall this point, accidentally knocking down some more logs that buried Nuka and Rudy! Kovu had just arrived at this point, but he managed to figure out what had happened. He quickly approached the log wall and desperately searched among the fallen logs, but Zira knocked him out of the way and took up a search of her own. Kovu at first looked confused, until he realized that he was searching in the wrong spot. He dug in a different spot, and found Rudy unconscious! Kovu gently dragged him out, and tried to wake him as he propped Rudy up with a leg. A light shone down from heaven and hit Rudy, but fortunately it was only the healing light. Rudy soon woke up.

"*Ptoo!* Yuck!" Rudy said, spitting out a very thick branch out of his mouth. "I don't know why termites like wood." He muttered.

Kovu looked both relieved and amused.

Zira, at this point, had just reached Nuka. Nuka gave a little cough and looked very weak.

"Nuka." Zira said sadly.

"I-I-I'm sorry, mother," Nuka shivered weakly. "I-I-I triiied…."

"Shhh." Zira said gently, cradling Nuka's head with a paw.

With a final gasp, Nuka died.

"Nuka." Vitani sobbed.

Rudy looked horrified.

"Oh, I-I didn't mean to kill him I was just…." Rudy stammered.

"No, it's all right, I'm not mad." Kovu interrupted gently.

Rudy first looked relieved, then confused.

"But…he's your brother." Rudy pointed out.

"He may be my brother but he wanted to be Scar's heir more than I ever did…." Kovu froze. "Did Harry tell you?"

"Actually Early did." Rudy said, pointing at Early.

Kovu looked at Early as if he had never seen her before…which he hadn't. What can I tell you, Early makes a very good spy.

"Early go check on Simba." Rudy said.

"All right but I'll be back." Early nodded before flying off.

Back at the Pride Lands….

Kiara, Penny S, Zazu, Timon, Pumbaa, and the rest of us noticed Simba limping towards us and looking to be in great pain.

"Father?" Kiara said as Penny S gasped with shock. "Father! Zazu get help!"

"Oh, yes, help, at once, of course." Zazu said quickly, obviously frantic.

Kiara, Penny S, Timon, and Pumbaa went straight to Simba, but the rest of us held back.

"Ooh I've got a bad feeling." I said, worried.

"Didn't Kiara say that Kovu and Rudy went with Simba?" Carl said. "Where are they?"

"That's why I've got a bad feeling." I pointed out.

"Oh."

"Simba, talk to me, what happened?" Timon asked, worried.

"K-Kovu," Simba choked out. "And Rudy…! Ambush." He groaned as he collapsed onto the ground.

"No." Kiara said, stunned with disbelief.

"What?" Penny S squeaked out.

"It's all right buddy," Timon said as Pumbaa picked Simba up; Timon helped too, but only by carrying Simba's tail. "We're here for you."

They all left for Pride Rock, but we stayed behind again.

"How…how can Simba even think…?" Snap said, very upset.

"Zira unfortunately used Rudy's name in the wrong sentence – and Simba took it the wrong way." Early explained.

"Is…is this one of those 'blame the villain' situations that you're always talking about?" Tuck asked me hopefully.

"Unfortunately no," I sighed. "Zira using Rudy's name in the wrong sentence was just an accident, but Double-Dee should have known better and Simba should know Rudy better than that."

"Official," Nazz sighed. "The Eds have entirely lost it."

"Why did you bring them along anyway?" Jimmy E asked.

"Er…let's just say I've learned an important lesson." I replied.

"What?" Kim asked.

"What's funny on TV isn't always funny in real life." I explained.

Understanding what I was talking about, the team and other Superwolves facepalmed.

"Comedy relief." Rolph groaned, explaining why I brought the Eds in just two words.

"Well **that** sure backfired." Brock muttered.

"Yeah, I learned it the hard way." I agreed.

"Miranda, listen, can't you just talk with Simba, make him understand that at least Rudy had nothing to do with the ambush?" Spongebob pleaded.

"Guys," I sighed sadly. "At the rate Simba's been going with his attitude I don't think he'll even listen to me."

Everyone hung their heads sadly as we started off towards Pride Rock. Early, however, went back to Kovu and Rudy.

_Back at the rock/log wall…._

Zira and Vitani were still mourning Nuka. Rudy and Kovu were also sad, but not for Nuka. They were sad because it looked like Mufasa's plan had failed – well at least partly since Kovu is on our side now.

"Scar," Zira sobbed. "Watch over my poor Nuka. You!"

Startled, both Kovu and Rudy looked up. Rudy didn't have to look up, but he though Zira was talking to him. She wasn't, she was only talking to Kovu. This was confirmed when Zira struck Kovu in the eye! Unfortunately, she unintentionally got Rudy's eye too! Kovu panted angrily as he looked up to glare at Zira. When Kovu looked up, even Zira was shocked, because Kovu had now gotten a scar just like Scar's! And when Rudy looked up, he lifted his hand off his eye in order to check for blood. Fortunately there wasn't any blood, but Early opened her mouth in a silent scream anyway. And for a good reason too, because when Rudy drew a mirror he found out that he too had gotten a scar exactly like Scar's!

"This is not going to look good back at Pride Rock." Rudy said to himself sadly.

"What have you done?" Zira whispered to Kovu angrily, sounding as if she was trying to hold her temper.

"I didn't…I-I didn't mean to…i-it wasn't my fault, I…." Kovu stammered before fully getting his voice back. "I did nothing!" He snapped angrily.

"Exactly!" Zira growled. "And in doing so you betrayed your Pride…betrayed Scar!"

"I want nothing more to do with him!" Kovu admitted angrily.

"You can't escape it Kovu!" Zira argued. "Nuka is dead because of you!"

"No…." Kovu disagreed.

"You've killed your own brother!" Zira declared.

"NOOO!" Kovu roared as he let Rudy onto his back before running away.

The other Outsiders looked as if they wanted to attack Kovu.

"Let him go!" Zira ordered. "Simba has hurt me for the last time…!"

Zira said more than that, as we found out later, but Early was so concerned about Kovu and Rudy – especially Rudy considering he had just killed someone without meaning to – that she flew after them and missed the rest of Zira's speech. As she caught up with them, she noticed that Rudy looked very guilty and upset.

"Kovu," He said. "You don't have to take the blame for Nuka's death, I'm the one who killed him…."

"Rudy no." Kovu interrupted sternly. "If Zira ever found out that you killed Nuka she'll kill you! I don't want to lose two brothers…!"

"What?" Rudy and Early both said.

Kovu stopped running.

"Oh…I…er, didn't mean it like that…." Kovu said, embarrassed.

"Kovu, don't lie." Rudy said with friendly sternness.

"Okay I did," Kovu admitted. "Well, not about Nuka…but about you, Nuka never really felt like a brother. He always wanted to follow in Scar's pawprints, which was obvious since Scar was after all **his** father. But when Scar chose me instead Nuka resented me. As a matter of fact that day you guys first met me Nuka was supposed to be keeping an eye on me, but he left me out there alone. He later got into trouble with Zira for that so I lied and said that I went off on my own, but Nuka never thanked me for that. But you…. Well, you seemed to trust me right from the start. You always seemed to want to help me, and you actually even played with me – which was something that Nuka never did – and even when Simba didn't trust me you didn't leave me alone, you stuck with me and kept me company. That touched me, and it felt like you were my real brother instead of Nuka. You even helped me become a Pridelander."

"Kovu, you always were a Pridelander." Rudy smiled, looking very touched. "You just needed to realize it for yourself."

"Thanks, I guess I was right about you being my real brother." Kovu smiled back. "I'm grateful to you for sticking with me when Simba didn't trust me, but now I want you to go back to your friends instead of going through whatever punishment Simba's going to give me."

"Even though neither of you deserve it." Early added bitterly.

"No Kovu." Rudy shook his head. "I once heard that brother's stick together, and that person is right. I'm not leaving you."

"But…you might be separated from Penny." Kovu pointed out. "Wouldn't that hurt?"

"I know, and it will, but you don't deserve the punishment any more than I do, so we're facing it together." Rudy said.

Now **both** Kovu and Rudy were touched, so they hugged.

They continued on again, but Early flew ahead to Pride Rock. Because of that she missed a part of Kovu's and Rudy's conversation: Rudy actually admitted knowing that he and Penny S would one day get married and was even comfortable talking about it! That ended up not being so surprising, because after Simba, Kovu, Rudy, and Early left that morning Penny S admitted the exact same thing to Kiara…and was actually looking forward to it, even dreaming of it. Rudy also had decided that Kiara and Kovu should be at his and Penny S's wedding – without knowing that Penny S had thought of the same thing. Eh, what can I say? Great minds think alike.

Kovu too actually dreamed of marrying Kiara, and so too did Kiara thought of her and Kovu getting married, but now after all this happened, well, it looks as if it would take a while before that could actually happen. When it would happen though they decided that Rudy and Penny S should have honorary roles at their wedding.


	10. Part of Us

Back at Pride Rock, Nala was nuzzling Simba as he rested from his wounds, but Kiara and Penny S both looked very upset.

"Daddy it can't be true." Kiara pleaded.

"Of course it isn't true…." Penny S agreed, close to tears.

Animal whispers suddenly interrupted her. As Eliza translated to us – except with a gentler tone of course – "It's Kovu and Rudy". Sure enough, Kovu and Rudy had arrived. When they got closer we noticed their scars with horror, so Early quickly explained what happened.

"Kovu (Rudy)!" Kiara and Penny S said happily, running towards them.

Unfortunately, Simba cut them off with a roar and walked to the edge of the main ledge with a frown on his face.

"Oh, why I oughta!" Timon said angrily before running in place in Kovu and Rudy's direction. "Let me at 'em, let me at 'em! Here hold me back." Timon said to Pumbaa, holding out his tail.

"Okay." Pumbaa agreed, taking Timon's tail.

"Let me at 'em, let me at 'em!" Timon said angrily, running in place towards Kovu and Rudy again.

"Okay." Pumbaa agreed, letting go of Timon's tail and causing Timon to fall to his knees.

"I think you're missing the basic point here." Timon said dryly, holding out his tail again.

"Oh." Pumbaa said.

For once, none of us laughed. None of us even smiled for that matter.

Kovu and Rudy walked between the rows of animals, looking nervously at them as the animals whispered about them with disapproval. They soon neared the main ledge where Simba was.

"Why have you two come back?" Simba asked angrily.

"Simba," Kovu and Rudy said. "We had nothing to do with…."

"You both don't belong here!" Simba snapped.

The rest of the team and the four of us gasped! That hurt Rudy so much that he fell silent and put a hand over his heart as if he had been shot!

"Please," Kovu begged, deciding to try a different tactic. "I ask your forgiveness."

Kovu said 'I' instead of 'we' because Rudy didn't need Simba's forgiveness, he needed Simba's thanks! In Kovu's case however he really was following Zira's plan, even though it ended up being temporary.

"Daddy (Simba) please, listen to him." Kiara and Penny S pleaded.

"Silence!" Simba snapped before turning back to Kovu and Rudy. "When you first came here you asked for judgment and I pass it now…for the **both** of you!"

Kiara, Penny S and the rest of us looked both shocked and upset as we waited with fear for whatever unnecessary punishment Simba was going to give them. Even Nala looked concerned, though she didn't look as upset as Kiara and Penny S. The other animals, however, yelled shouts of agreement to what Simba was saying. Eliza translated that most of the animals were shouting the word 'judgment'.

"EXILE!" Simba declared.

"NO!" Kiara and Penny S cried.

Kovu and Rudy looked around in fear and shock as the animals started stomping and yelling in effect to the exile.

"Noo!" Kiara and Penny S cried as they tried to run to their true loves; unfortunately, a couple of lionesses cut them off. "Kovu (Rudy)." Kiara and Penny S said desperately.

My team and I would've done something to stop this, but we were to shocked/stunned/horrified/furious – well, you get the idea – to think of a way to stop the exile. However, I did conjure up speakers that connected to Camera as he turned on his universal translator. Better to hear what was really being said rather than imagine the worse. Rudy and Penny S almost never heard what the animals were calling Rudy and Kovu because I thought that the exile itself was painful enough for them without the insults. I ended up slightly wrong: by reading their minds I found out that they actually wanted to hear the insults, they didn't want to imagine the worse either. I obliged and secretly conjured up some invisible translators for them to wear in their ears. When the song was done the translators magically disappeared.

The animals started to chase Kovu and Rudy away and sing in disapproval to them. The chase and song started when a couple of antelopes lowered their heads and drove Kovu and Rudy away with their horns.

ANIMALS:  
Deception  
Disgrace  
Evil as plain as the scar on their face!

ZEBRAS:  
Deception!  
An outrage!

GIRAFFES:  
Disgrace!  
For shame!

HIPPO:  
They asked for trouble the moment they came

Ron W suddenly leapt down off Pride Rock and started to run after Kovu and Rudy behind all of the animals! Unfortunately, he didn't run more than a few feet when he somehow tripped and broke his front leg! I made a motion that signaled for him to come back so that I could fix it, but Ron W refused and continued on. Unfortunately, he was so upset and desperate to stop the exile that he ironically forgot that he could fly. We other Superwolves didn't remind him through telepathy because we too ironically forgot. Later we found out that after Harry was unfairly treated like a traitor back in our second year Ron W just couldn't stand to see it happen again to any other friend. This also meant that Harry too was feeling empathetic pain.

Meanwhile, Kovu and Rudy had to run past vipers and dodge their strikes! Fortunately, the vipers completely missed them, but Rudy grew pale with fright anyways. After all being chased away was one thing, but he never expected the animals to try to hurt him or Kovu!

ANIMALS:  
Deception!  
An outrage!  
They can't change their stripes!  
Disgrace!  
For shame!  
You know these Outsider types!  
Evil as plain as the scar on their face!  
See you later, agitators!  
Just leave us alone!  
An outrage!  
Disgrace!  
For shame!  
Traitors, go back with your own!

HIPPO:  
They asked for trouble the moment they came

ANIMALS:  
See you later, agitators!  
Born in grief  
Raised in hate  
Helpless to defy their fate  
Let them run  
Let them live  
But do not forget  
What we cannot forgive!

Continuing on, Kovu and Rudy then ran into zebras that reared angrily, ran through antelopes that head butted each other above them, and through rows of ostriches that jabbed them with their beaks. An ostrich even got Rudy in his non-scarred eye! Monkeys then threw rocks at Kovu and Rudy, even striking Rudy in the head! Rudy clutched his head in pain as he and Kovu rounded a bend. A flock of birds then flew after them and started to attack them! Rudy, luckily, was smart enough to bury his face into Kovu's mane and protect his neck with his arms. By the time Kovu and Rudy reached a river and had escaped all of the animals, they were badly beaten up, though it was easier to see it on Rudy since he didn't have any fur to cover the wounds. Rudy was still pale, and now his eyes had started filling with tears, which gradually became heavier.

Ron W, meanwhile, ran the best that he could on a broken leg – which isn't very fast even for a Superwolf – but was delayed when he stepped on his broken leg wrong and tripped into unconsciousness!

ANIMALS:  
And they are not part of us  
They have never been part of us  
They are not part of us  
Not our kind

Someone once lied to us  
Now we're not so blind  
For we knew they would do what they've done  
And we know that they'll never be part of us

ANTELOPE:  
They are not part of us

Kiara and Penny S managed to dodge the lionesses around this point, but they ended up re-trapped by two other lionesses.

Kovu and Rudy looked back towards Pride Rock with sadness, and then looked away. Kovu looked at his reflection in the water for a moment…it suddenly turned into Scar! Startled, Kovu continued running away. Rudy was very confused at Kovu's sudden movement since he never saw Scar's reflection in place of Kovu's. The image of Scar was actually just a hallucination caused by Kovu's own fear of turning into Scar.

"I'm going to go help Ron back here." Harry said to the rest of us, leaping off Pride Rock.

Not wanting to break his leg like Ron W did, Harry went slowly, but not before sending a growl back in Simba's direction. Harry then continued on with tears forming in his eyes.

ANTELOPE:  
Deception

ZEBRA:  
Disgrace

Rudy, completely heartbroken – actually more like heart-shattered – looked back and burst out crying into Kovu's mane. Kiara and Penny S looked after them sadly and hung their heads heartbroken. A tear flowed down Penny S's cheek.

ANTELOPE:  
Deception

ZEBRA:  
Disgrace

Simba only looked after them with hatred – like he did throughout the entire song – but the rest of the team and Hermione and I hung our heads miserable as those who wore hats or hoods took them off in sympathizing respect. We wouldn't be surprised if Boss and the other Stone Gods had also hung their heads sadly.

ANTELOPE:  
Deception

Neither Kovu nor Rudy saw Rafiki behind them on a rock, but he saw them and, disappointed in Simba, moaned.

Kiara and Penny S were now finally free from the lionesses, but in a way it was too late.

"Father (Simba) please reconsider." Kiara and Penny S pleaded, close to tears.

"You are both not to go anywhere without an escort for now on." Simba replied.

"No, that's not…!" Kiara and Penny S started to protest.

"They used you two to get to me!" Simba said.

"No!" Kiara and Penny S argued. "He loves me, for me!"

"Because you are my daughter and you are under my care!" Simba explained sternly, referring to Penny S on that last part. "The both of you will not leave Pride Rock! You will stay here where I can keep an eye on you two, away from them!"

Wait a minute, Penny S under Simba's care? Did this guy lose his brain in an operation or something? Penny S was supposed to be Kiara's friend and companion, not Simba's second daughter!

"You don't know him!" Kiara and Penny S sobbed.

"I know Rudy has betrayed us!" Simba snapped.

Kiara and the rest of us gasped! How could he say that?

"And I know Kovu's following in Scar's pawprints," Simba continued. "And I must follow in my father's."

"You will **never** be Mufasa!" Kiara sobbed and Penny S cried angrily.

Simba looked back at them with shock as they sobbed and ran into the den. They then collapsed near a wall and started crying.

Now it was our turn to argue.

"How dare you exile a Superwolf Friend and a Pridelander without reason!" I called down angrily.

This caused the animals to gasp and the lionesses to look up with shock. Nala looked as if she agreed with us yet didn't want us to be mad at Simba.

"There is no way Kovu can ever be a Pridelander!" Simba called back angrily. "He's an Outsider! And I'm sorry that you're hurt that a Superwolf Friend betrayed us but that doesn't mean you should be in denial!"

"You…you never even gave Kovu nor Rudy a chance!" Addy cried.

"Yeah!" Josefina agreed.

"You only treated them like intruders despite the fact that they saved Kiara and Penny's lives!" Samantha added angrily.

"I **did** give Kovu and Rudy a chance and they ended up leading me into an ambush!" Simba argued.

"As I recall **you're** the one who lead the three of you to where you were ambushed!" Goddard pointed out angrily, almost growling.

"Oh stop!" Simba snapped. "Zira said herself that Rudy and Kovu had been planning the whole thing with her the whole time!"

"You misunderstood something, that's all!" Kit yelled.

"How could've Rudy even been able to contact Zira anyways?" Kaya pointed out.

"Exactly, he was with Kiara and the rest of us the whole time!" Kirsten agreed.

"Well then he was corrupted when he hung out with Kovu!" Simba argued. "He should've known better! I'm surprised he was even picked to become a king!"

The rest of the team and Hermione and I gasped, horrified, how could anyone ever say that about Rudy? I mean that did it, that was the final straw, the end of the rope, the straw that broke the camel's back, the plague, the fly in the ointment, the…sorry, I almost started to go overboard there. Anyway, you know what we were feeling and thinking I'm sure. Actually, I was surprised that neither of the Stone Gods, not even Chalk Stone God, smited Simba. They aren't the smiting type but even they have their limits...

"*OOOH!*" Grim cried. "Kiara and Penny are both right!"

"YOU WILL **NEVER** BE MUFASA!" The rest of the team and Hermione and I screamed.

Furious and all that, we went down the back of Pride Rock to calm down so that we could search for Kovu and Rudy. What we didn't know then though, was that two of the Superwolf Friends were missing.

We were so angry that none of us could speak, though it didn't take long for some of us to get our voice back. Haddock went on a swear frenzy, which for once none of us laughed to. All of the dogs went between growling angrily and howling sadly. Stitch joined the dogs in the growling. Most of the others took to kicking the rocks around us, though Jenny ended up crumbling a whole bunch by pounding her fists at them. The rest of us cried out insults and words of angry disbelief.

"Rotten ryrant." Scooby growled.

"You're right Scooby, Simba is being a tyrant!" Fred agreed.

"Yeah, I would've splatted him but he's still a goodguy despite what he did." Scrappy added.

"Smart decision, Simba might've ripped you to shreds." Darwin said.

"Still, one thing is certain: Kiara will make a better ruler than Simba ever was." Patrick added.

"You got that right." Hermione nodded.

At this point, Harry and Ron W came back, causing us to stop and look at Ron W with sympathy: he was awake now and sobbing words of disappointment in himself.

"It's all right Ron, don't blame yourself," Clifford said gently. "I can't imagine anyone being able to make it on a broken leg."

"Yeah, you gave it your best shot." Fu-Fu agreed. "I should know, I've had a lot of accidents while flying but I still keep flying."

"It's okay Ron, we'll straighten this whole mess somehow." I said. "Put him in his compartment Harry, and one of you other wizards better give his leg a healing spell. I gotta think of a way to sneak Kiara and Penny out of here."

Ron W moaned in pain as his leg healed.

"Look on the bright side," Harry joked. "At least Gilderoy Lockhart isn't here."

He and Ron W cracked up, though Hermione looked sad at that one. Harry were referring to our second year's Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher who ended up knowing more about bragging than anything else. He couldn't even do a simple healing spell, which caused unfortunate side effects back when he tried one on Harry's broken arm. Hermione was hurt when she found out that he was a fake because she used to admire him for his 'accomplishments'. It turned out that he was just taking credit for what other people did.

"Say," Numbuh Three said. "Where's Wally?"

Sure enough Numbuh Four was missing! But he wasn't the only one….

"And where's Snap?" Cosmo added.

Both questions were answered when Numbuh Four and Snap came tumbling towards us! They were both fighting…or rather Snap was trying to attack and Numbuh Four was trying to keep a hold of him.

"Uh, Wally, what're you doing?" Cleo asked.

"Trying to keep Snap from making the same mistake I made last time we were here." Numbuh Four explained.

That's when we realized that Snap was trying to get back at Simba for exiling Rudy.

"Wally has a point Snap," Wanda agreed. "You could get badly hurt, plus for all we know Simba might exile you next."

"I don't care!" Snap said angrily. "He can't treat my best friend that way!"

At that, we knew we had to think of something else in order to get Snap to stop.

"You stick with figuring out a way to get Kiara and Penny out of here Miranda." AJ said. "We'll think of a way to stop Snap."

"All right, we can't waste any time after all." I shrugged.

After a few moments, Danny snapped his fingers.

"Uh Snap, I know you don't care whether you get hurt or not but obviously Rudy would be very upset if you got hurt." Danny pointed out.

Snap stopped struggling!

"How did you figure that out?" Felicity asked.

"Easy, I put myself in Rudy's shoes." Danny muttered.

The rest of us winced and looked sympathetic. Obviously it wasn't that hard for Danny to do.

"Er…sorry I asked." Felicity apologized, looking a little embarrassed.

"No, no. I'm sorry I used that tone, it's not your fault." Danny apologized.

"Don't sweat it, no goodguy is thought of as bad forever." Alex smiled.

"Thanks." Danny smiled back.

"Darn it." Snap muttered, kicking at a rock from a pile behind us.

Suddenly, we heard crying and noticed a little hole in the rock pile!

"Hm, a secret entrance…or should I say exit?" I smiled.

I dug a little at the rock pile, just enough to make the hole more noticeable, and the crying suddenly stopped! Kiara and pushed the rocks out of the way, and she and Penny S blindly ran ahead without even noticing any of us.

"Bloody brilliant." James smiled.

I smiled back, and we followed Kiara and Penny S. We didn't follow them to closely though, because it would be best if they had some time alone with Kovu and Rudy. However, Camera did fly on ahead to follow Kiara and Penny S – who was obviously riding Kiara.


	11. Love Will Find a Way

A.N. Now, sad to say, the song I got the chapter title from won't be here. All that was just in Kiara and Kovu's minds, not even Rudy or Penny S knew about it.

The Kiara and Penny S ran through the grass until they reached the river.

"Kovu (Rudy)?" They said as Kiara hopped onto a rock to get a better view.

Kiara then leapt off the rock into the river.

"Kovu (Rudy)."

They then noticed their faces' reflections in the water and saw that half of each reflection was missing. They continued on until they reached a small crevice in a rocky wall. Neither Kovu nor Rudy were there.

"Kovu (Rudy)." They said sadly, hanging their heads heartbroken.

They searched and searched until it was nighttime, but they hadn't discovered a single sign of Kovu or Rudy. Almost as bad, they kept running into couples along the way, making them feel even lonelier. They saw a bird couple – which Kiara almost stepped on – and an antelope couple before heading into a forest. There they saw a couple of butterflies flying by.

They then hoped onto a trunk-like tree branch that protruded over a pond and looked up into the stars. There were the very two constellations – the bunny and fighting lions – that they saw before Rafiki showed up and sang to them. They sadly rested their heads and saw their reflections in the water – and noticed that they were missing half of their reflections again. They knew that this symbolized Kovu and Rudy not being there and completing them, and it broke their hearts even further. Suddenly, there was rustling in the cattails across the way…could it be Kovu and Rudy? Kiara and Penny S perked up…until they found out that it was only a frog. Sad again, they continued on before they stopped to rest at a hill – an ash covered hill, they were back where the fire was. Kiara hug her head while Penny S kneeled sadly into the ground.

What they didn't know though, was that someone – two of them, in fact – were behind Kiara and Penny S. It was Kovu and Rudy! Rudy was leaning against Kovu and looking very hurt – on both the outside and inside, but more so on the inside – and Kovu at first hung his head sadly until he recognized Kiara. He tapped Rudy on the shoulder gently, and Rudy looked up. As he saw Penny S, he started to look a whole lot better as he beamed with both happiness and love. Kovu and Rudy started towards Kiara and Penny S….

Hearing something behind them, Kiara turned around, and tapped Penny S on the shoulder as she saw Kovu and Rudy. Penny S turned around almost at the same time, and also beamed with happiness and love as she saw Rudy. The four of them looked at each other for a while, and then ran towards each other. Kiara ad Kovu hugged with their necks while Rudy and Penny S ended up in a tight hug. Kiara licked Kovu on the cheek, while Penny S actually kissed Rudy on the cheek!

Kiara and Penny S then started to run off with smiles on their faces. Kovu and Rudy smiled – Rudy actually looked happily surprised – and they ran off after their true loves. The four of them romped through the ashes, and Penny S and Kiara playfully batted some of the ashes at their true loves. Rudy playfully batted some ashes back at Penny S, and she and Rudy sort of danced after Kovu and Kiara who were walking towards another hill. Kiara and Kovu cuddled – and Rudy and Penny S kissed! Just like they did when they first fell in love, they kissed! They were now fully comfortable with showing their love for each other in public.

The rest of the team and the four of us reached them at this point. Boy were Snap and I happy when we saw the four of them together, especially when we saw Rudy and Penny S kissing. We also saw that the ashes surrounding the two couples were starting to blow away, revealing fresh grass.

Rudy and Penny S then stopped and rested in a hug. Already, both couples' broken hearts were starting to mend.

A couple of butterflies flew around the two couples, causing Kovu and Rudy to burst out laughing and to run off back the way they came from. Kiara and Penny S laughed too, and followed them. At this point, the rest of the team and the four of us started to catch up with them. Kiara playfully pounced Kovu as they reached a pond, while Rudy picked Penny S up and swung her around until he landed on his back near the pond. Kovu and Rudy now kissed their true loves on the cheek – and noticed their reflections in the pond. Rudy and Penny S made up two halves of a reflection, while Kovu and Kiara made up two halves of another reflection.

"Hey, look," Kovu joked. "We are one."

Rudy and Penny S's mouths dropped open, Kiara looked up with a confused/whispered "What?", and the rest of us stopped dead in our tracks with our mouths open.

"Where in the world did he learn that saying?" Jimmy N asked, surprised.

"I have no idea." I smiled, also amazed.

"Let's get outta here!" Kovu declared to Kiara happily. "We'll run away together, and start a Pride, all our own."

"Kovu," Kiara smiled, nuzzling him. "We have to go back."

"You're kidding?" Kovu said, confused. "But we're finally together."

"Our place is with our Pride." Kiara explained. "If we run away, they'll be divided forever."

Kovu started to think about that….

The rest of us now caught up with them and got out of our compartments. Rudy and Snap immediately hugged each other, and Kovu for some reason smiled at me.

"Thank you for coming up with your plan." He said.

I was confused at first, but then turned to Rudy with a very serious look.

"You didn't tell him did you?" I said with fake sterness.

"Hey, I was supposed to trust him wasn't I?" Rudy grinned.

I laughed, but Kiara looked confused.

"What plan?" She asked.

Kovu sighed and told her the truth about Zira's plan and the counter-plan Mufasa, Rafiki, and I worked together on.

"So…the fire rescue, pretending to be a rogue, everything was just so that you could kill dad?" Kiara said, looking heartbroken.

"Yes…at first, but I don't want to be part of Zira's plot anymore because…I love you." Kovu said.

Kiara looked grateful as she nuzzled Kovu, and then she turned to Rudy and Penny S.

"So…you guys were only hanging out with us in order to make sure that we would end up together, huh?" Kiara said, disappointed.

"Yes…until we all became close friends." Penny S smiled. "I'm really going to miss you."

"Yeah, I'll miss you too." Kiara smiled.

"I know, Rudy is going to rule ChalkZone for the rest of his life." Kovu smiled. "Congratulations, you really deserve it."

WHAT?

"I-I didn't tell him anything!" Rudy said as we stared at both him and Kovu.

"I know," Kovu laughed. "I found out in my dreams back when I was a cub. This guy told me all about you, how you first found out about ChalkZone, all the things you've done, and everything that happened to you during the Superwolf Adventures."

"So that's what the Chalk Stone God did to get Kovu to trust Rudy." Tintin said.

"Yeah, seeing how selfless and kind Rudy is touched me, so I couldn't help but to trust him." Kovu said. "And after we hung out I began to think of him as a brother."

Rudy smiled, embarrassed about Kovu's description of him. The rest of us looked happily surprised about Kovu thinking of Rudy as his brother, not even I expected that to happen!

"Oh, gee, that's actually not good." Hermione said. "If you two are that close then that means that you'll really miss each other when Rudy and Penny move into ChalkZone."

"Oh relax guys." I chuckled. "Do you honestly think the Chalk Stone God would've let them grow that close if they were going to be entirely separated for the rest of their lives? I asked the Chalk Stone God about us seeing Rudy and Penny and their families after they move into ChalkZone and he said that the portal system will only be closed between ChalkZone and the Real World. We'll still be able to visit them."

Everyone else was relieved and happy.

"Oh, almost forgot." I quickly zapped away Kovu and Rudy's scars.

"Wow, thanks!" Kovu smiled, surprised.

"Well they didn't look good on either of ya." I chuckled.

A.N. I never did this for Harry because it's a magical scar and can't be removed at the moment. My spell only works on normal scars.

"Now come on, we have to fix this mess." I said, going back to Rip.


	12. War!

"Wait, I just thought of something." Billy spoke up. "Usually whenever Kiara and Penny escape Timon and Pumbaa are the first ones to find out. Thinking what I'm thinking?"

I grinned, and so did a few others.

"Why not, might as well get some comedy relief before we head back." I agreed.

I set up Jasmine for the flight and she flew back to Pride Rock as Rip opened the screen so that we could watch. Kovu, Kiara, Rudy, and Penny S went ahead too. They wanted to get back home quickly so that they could ask Simba for an appeal. And I hope he slips on it too! Heh, sorry, couldn't resist.

Flying of course takes less time than walking, so Jasmine got there long before the two couples. It had started raining, so she figured that Timon and Pumbaa might be inside the den: she was right.

"I can't believe we lost them again!" Timon cried. "This is the eight-thousandth time! I though you were gonna watch them!" He snapped to Pumbaa.

"Me?" Pumbaa cried. "You were gonna watch them!"

"I thought you were gonna watch them!" Timon argued.

"No, you were gonna watch them!" Pumbaa argued.

"You were gonna watch them!"

"*OOOH* WATCH **THIS**!" Pumbaa cried as he pounced on Timon.

"*OW!* TAKE **THAT** YOU **CREE**-PY WART-**HOOOG**!" Timon yelled back, flipping Pumbaa onto his back and pulling his lower lip painfully.

Jasmine sensed someone coming inside, so she turned and saw Simba shaking his mane dry by the entrance.

"SAY IT!" Timon snapped.

"FAT!" Pumbaa cried back.

Jasmine turned back around and saw Timon doing the old wrestling move of pulling your opponent's leg backwards painfully to Pumbaa.

"SAY IT!" Timon snapped again.

"FAT! FATTY! FAT, FAT!" Pumbaa cried as he pounded his hooves onto the floor; apparently 'saying fat' was his version of 'saying uncle.'

The rest of the team and the four of us laughed.

"What're you doing?" Simba asked, also amused.

"*AAH!*" Timon cried as Pumbaa clicked upright and caused Timon to fall off. "Good question, uh, let me ask you one."

"Hippo-thetically." Pumbaa added.

"Very **hy**-pothetical." Timon corrected. "There's this guy…."

"But he's not a lion." Pumbaa interrupted.

"No, no he's not a lion, geez, definitely not a lion." Timon agreed.

Simba rolled his eyes with a smile, he knew otherwise.

"And, ah, uh, his daughter, eh, and her friend, um, say…**vanished**." Timon said under his breath.

"Kiara and Penny are gone?" Simba cried angrily.

"Sire!" Zazu cried, suddenly flying in. "The Outsiders are on the attack, heading this way, it's WAR!"

"Zazu find Kiara and Penny!" Simba ordered. "We'll assemble the lionesses! Move, now!"

The rest of the team and other Superwolves immediately gave shouts of "Oh no!" and "We have to stop them!" and things like that.

"Right! Jasmine, stay there and record the battle until we arrive!" I ordered with telepathy. "Superwolves move out!" I said without telepathy

We leapt into our compartments and headed for the Pride Lands.

The Pridelanders and Outsiders approached each other at a bare area near a canyon. All of the animals that were there sensed a battle coming and ran away in fear. Kovu, Kiara, and their riders had almost caught up with them here…except they were on the other side of the canyon.

As both Prides grew closer, Zira climbed onto a large rock.

"NAH-NUH-NAH-NUH-NAH-NAH!" Timon and Pumbaa chanted teasingly as they waved their butts at the Outsiders.

"It's **over** Simba!" Zira said wickedly. "I have dreamed of nothing else, for years!"

"Boy does she need a hobby." Timon muttered to Pumbaa sarcastically.

"Last chance Zira," Simba said sternly. "Go home!"

"I **am** home!" Zira retorted. "Attack!"

Both Prides started towards each other in first a walk, then a canter, then they ran towards each other and attacked! The Outsiders struck the Pridelanders as Zira gave orders.

"Go for the eye!" Zira ordered. "Break her jaw. Get her low. Get them! Do what you must!"

Seeing both Prides battling, Kovu and Kiara ran up towards the edge. They and Rudy and Penny S looked at the scene with shock, and ran off in hopes of finding a way to get to the other side.

"Whadda we do?" Pumbaa cried as he and Timon stood flat against a rock. "Whadda we do?"

"There's only one thing we can do Pumbaa." Timon replied determinedly. "'When the going gets tough, the tough get going', that's our motto!"

"I thought our motto was: 'Hakuna Matata'." Pumbaa said, confused.

"Pumbaa stop living in the past!" Timon said. "We need a new motto. Yee-ha!"

Timon and Pumbaa both screamed a battle cry as they charged towards the Outsiders…that is until one of the Outsiders roared at them. They screamed again, but this time out of pure fright.

"Like I said, let's get going!" Timon cried as the Outsider and a few of her friends chased them away.

You know, their old motto is a whole lot better. Works better too.

Meanwhile, Kovu and the others found a way to get to the other side…a log pile that formed a bridge across the canyon. Kiara and Penny S made it across without any trouble, though Kovu and Rudy almost fell at one point as the logs started to move.

"Where's your pretty daughter Nala?" Vitani taunted on top of a rock.

"Vitani!" Nala said angrily.

Vitani leapt off the rock and attacked Nala. Nala fought back as the two of them rolled around for a bit.

At the same time, Timon and Pumbaa had just found themselves trapped in front of a rocky wall. They stood flat against the wall for a moment, and then Pumbaa cowered on the ground with his head facing the wall. Timon quickly jerked his head around to find a way out…and noticed that Pumbaa's butt was facing the Outsiders. He chuckled the chuckle one gets when they get an idea, and then he leapt on top of Pumbaa and clicked Pumbaa's tail as if it were a gun.

"Don't anybody move!" Timon ordered, pointing Pumbaa's tail at the Outsiders. "This thing's loaded…I'll let ya have it!"

The Outsiders screamed in terror and ran away. Timon laughed.

"Talk about your winds of war." He said smugly.

The rest of the team and the four of us arrived around this point, and watched with shock at how viciously the Pridelanders and Outsiders were fighting. When we looked towards our right, we gasped! Zira noticed the same thing that we saw, but her reaction was different.

"Simba." She laughed evilly. "You're mine!"

Simba was being ambushed by a wave of Outsiders! Fortunately, he managed to drive away the Outsiders…except for Zira, who struck him hard and caused him to fall onto his back! Startled, the Pridelanders and Outsiders immediately stopped fighting to watch the climax part of the battle from behind their respective leaders. Simba soon got up, and he and Zira paced in preparation to fight!

"Simba! Zira!" I cried. "No, stop! Stop!"

I drove Rip back a few feet, and then he leapt right over the canyon….

Simba and Zira soon raised their right paws with a roar and bared their claws!


	13. Wising Up the Two Prides

Suddenly, Kovu and Kiara leapt right in front of their parents and cut them off! Kovu and Rudy glared at Zira sternly while Kiara and Penny S glared at Simba sternly.

"STOP!" The rest of the team and the four of us cried angrily as we landed safely.

Both Pridelanders and Outsiders stared at us for a few seconds before turning back to Kovu and Kiara.

"Kiara? Penny?" Simba said, surprised.

"Kovu!" Zira said, so surprised to see Kovu that she didn't notice Rudy. "Move." She ordered sternly.

"Step aside." Simba ordered Kiara and Penny S sternly.

"Daddy (Simba), this has to stop!" Kiara and Penny S said sternly.

"You're even weaker than I thought!" Zira growled to Kovu. "Get out of the way!"

"You'll never hurt Kiara, or Simba." Kovu retorted.

"Not while I'm here." Rudy finished with Kovu determinedly.

Zira looked very taken aback and shocked.

"Stay out of this!" Simba ordered Kiara and Penny S sternly.

"A wise king once told me 'we are one'." Kiara replied, ignoring the order. "I didn't understand him then…now I do."

Music unexpectedly started playing, causing everyone, even the Outsiders, to turn towards the sound. The music was coming from a tape player that I was holding up! As a matter of fact it was the very same tape player I used to record a very important song a long time ago! Soon, a very familiar voice sang these next three lines:

We are one, you and I  
We are like the earth and the sky  
One family under the sun

As you might've guessed, it was Simba's voice. The music stopped there as I turned the tape recorder off. Interestingly, the Outsiders looked as if they were listening and thinking about those lines.

"But…they…?" Simba asked, confused.

"Them?" Kiara repeated. "Us! Look at them, they are us! What differences do you see?"

The Outsiders also seemed to be listening to Kiara's words. The rain stopped….

"Kovu what are you doing with Rudy?" Zira suddenly demanded, just now noticing Rudy.

"What do are you talking about?" Simba said, looking confused. "Wasn't Rudy part of your plan? You did mention his name…."

"Of course he wasn't part of my plan!" Zira snapped, looking at Simba as if he were crazy. "Back when we ambushed you I was only going to ask what he was doing there but then decided to just go ahead with killing you."

"You mean…." Simba stopped and reacted as if someone had just hit him on the head hard.

He then looked nervously towards the rest of the team and the four of us, and with good reason. You know the expression 'staring daggers'? Well we were 'staring swords'.

"I'm in trouble, aren't I?" Simba said nervously/knowingly.

"You **all** are!" I snapped furiously. "There is absolutely no excuse for a feud!"

The Outsiders also seemed to listen to that too. The sun suddenly shined through a break in the clouds, and Simba smiled before he and Kiara nuzzled. Simba finally learned how wrong he had been this whole time.

"Vitani! Now!" Zira ordered, startling all of us.

"No mother!" Vitani said firmly.

She looked over towards Kiara and Simba and actually walked over to our side of the battlefield!

"Kiara and Miranda are right: enough." Vitani said gently but seriously.

"If you will not fight, then you will die as well." Zira grinned evilly.

The other Outsiders rolled their eyes with disgust and walked over to our side of the battlefield too!

"What-what're? Where are you going?" Zira said angrily as she noticed this. "Get back here!"

"Let it go Zira." Simba said, almost grim faced. "It's time to put the past behind us."

Rudy and Penny S got off Kovu and Kiara. Harry left Rip and looked as if he wanted to say something….

"I'll **never** let it go!" Zira declared. "This is for you, Scar." She said under her breath.

Zira leapt at Simba….

"Zira! Hold it!" Harry cried as he and Kiara cut her off.

All three of them fell down the cliff towards the canyon!

"Harry!" The team, Ron W, Hermione, and I cried.

"Kiara!" Simba cried.

"Kiara!" Kovu, Rudy, and Penny S cried.

Simba leapt down the cliff and started using his claws to make his way to Kiara. The rest of us followed him at the edge of the cliff.

"Kiara!" Simba cried again.

Nala leapt down too, and made her way to a rocky cylinder that protruded from the bottom of the canyon.

"Hold on Kiara!" She cried.

Suddenly, the log wall burst and water started gushing along the canyon!

"Simba…" She almost lost her voice. "Simba, the river!"

We all looked, and gasped!

"Oh no, Harry's not that good a swimmer!" Hermione gasped.

"WHAT?" Everyone else except for Ron W and I cried.

"The Dursleys never let him take swimming lessons!" Ron W explained.

"I am so having a talk with my sister when we get home." Lily said angrily.

True, Harry did learn to swim back in our fourth year, but that doesn't mean he can handle a very strong current like the river below! Actually, all four of us have a part in Superwolf training that we haven't been very good at. Mine of course was broomstick riding, but I've already finished that one and can at least not go on wild rides anymore. Harry's is swimming strong currents, it's a slow process for him considering that he had gillyweed the last time he swam. Ron W's is learning how to relax, which is also a slow process since he – as you probably remember from our first five years at Hogwarts – isn't very good at it. Hermione's is physical fighting, she's really more of the brains in our group and sometimes can't fight very well, though when she has magic to back her up she usually is the last one to lose a battle.

Meanwhile, Harry, Kiara, and Zira tumbled down the cliff until Kiara found refuge on a ledge. Harry and Zira, however, continued tumbling until they were clinging to the wall of the ledge. Since Harry was able to hold on better, Kiara decided to help Zira first.

"Zira, give me your paw." Kiara said, extending a paw.

Zira defiantly swiped at Kiara's paw, causing Kiara to pull it away for a moment.

"Zira come on," Kiara pleaded. "I'll help you."

"Zira, please, let Kiara help you." Harry pleaded.

The rest of us had managed to catch up a few seconds ago, so we stared at Harry blankly, wondering why he was acting so friendly. To our great shock Zira lifted a paw…but not for Kiara to grab in order to help her up!

"You!" Zira said angrily as she swiped at Harry!

Harry dodged the swipe…but unfortunately his grip on the ledge wall weakened because of it! It then became too late for Kiara to help Zira, because Zira lost her grip and fell into the river with a scream.

"Zira!" Harry cried, causing the rest of us to become very confused.

Zira disappeared into the river, save for a paw that we caught a glimpse of before a log knocked it underwater. Kovu hung his head sadly.

Now Kiara tried to save Harry, but Harry fell into the river with a scream too!

"Harry!" We all cried as James turned into a stag and leapt into the river!

"James!" Lily and Sirius cried.

Jenny flew into the river and pulled James out. I followed to make sure James was all right – he was – and when I analyzed the river I got heartbreaking news. I looked at James and Jenny sadly, who both immediately understood what was wrong. We sadly made it back to the others.

At this point, Simba had just caught up with Kiara.

"Kiara." He said, relieved that she was all right.

"Daddy," Kiara said sadly. "I tried."

Simba and Kiara started climbing back up to the other lionesses….

When Jenny, James, and I got back to the others, we looked down at the ground very sadly. James turned back into a human and sadly put his arm around Lily. Lily looked heartbroken as James whispered the bad news to her.

"What's wrong?" Ron W said, worried. "Where's Harry?"

"Harry's…gone." I said sadly. "My analyzer couldn't find him."

"What?" Hermione gasped.

"No…Harry!" Ron W said, going over to the edge of the cliff. "HARRY!" He cried.

Nothing, only an echo answered him.

"N-now what?" Hermione sobbed.

"Let's just go back to Pride Rock." I sighed, completely defeated.

James, Lily, and Sirius sobbed as the rest of us hung our heads in mourning.

Simba and Kiara didn't hear our conversation because they had just made it back up.

"Kiara." Nala said, relieved.

Neither the team nor the four of us noticed earlier, but Timon and Pumbaa had reappeared just after the Outsiders became Pridelanders and before Kiara and Harry saved Simba's life.

"Wow, that was really brave." Pumbaa complimented.

"Yee-ha." Timon agreed.

"Kovu." Kiara said, approaching him.

"Oh Kiara." Kovu sighed as they hugged.

Simba noticed this.

"Kovu," He said. "I was wrong, you belong here. Let's go home…all of us." He smiled to the ex-Outsiders.

We all started to leave….


	14. Not All the Pain is Gone

"Simba," Kovu said, approaching him. "There's someone who needs your apology more."

Simba, understanding what Kovu meant, went over to Rudy.

"Rudy I…I'm so sorry." Simba said. "I…never should have treated you the way I did, I don't know what I was thinking…."

Rudy cut him off by bursting into tears and rushing into his compartment. Penny S and Snap glared at Simba for a moment, and then shunned him and ran back into their compartments. Sad, but understanding, Simba went over to me.

"Miranda, I'm sorry, I…." He began.

"Oh forget it!" I snapped. "Because of your and Zira's foolishness Harry's…."

I broke off, and Hermione, Ron W, and I burst into tears as we ran into our own compartments. But before I could disappear into mine Early came out looking furious.

"How could you give up so quickly?" She demanded.

"Early, Harry's not a good swimmer, there's no sign of him…." I started to explain.

"*OOOH!*" Early cried, frustrated, as she flew away.

"Early come back here!" I ordered.

"No!" She snapped back.

With a final cry of both sadness and frustration, I leapt into my compartment and slammed the lid down…hard, very hard. Fortunately, Rip can only feel mental pain, and he only felt it about Harry being gone. James, Lily, and Sirius soon went inside their compartments and also slammed the lids after giving Simba a cold glare. Almost the rest of the team soon followed.

"It looks like it'll be a while before they forgive you." Kiara said sympathetically.

"I don't blame them." Simba sighed. "I was so worried about being betrayed again that I ended up doing the betraying. Now I understand that Rudy was trying to save my life the whole time."

"You're right." Kovu nodded. "But don't worry, I'm sure they'll forgive you eventually."

"I wouldn't be surprised if they never did." Simba admitted.

Rip followed Simba and the other lions back to Pride Rock, but what none of us knew at the time was that there were a few Superwolf Friends missing. They were Sam, Clover, Alex, Kim, Ron S, and Danny.

They actually listened to Early's words 'give up so quickly' and realized that there might be a chance of Harry surviving the current. They talked it over among themselves, and also figured out that the rest of us didn't catch on to that because we were still traumatized by the exile yesterday. Danny and the others recovered because not only was Danny used to this sort of treatment, but also each one of them remembered all of the very close calls they had encountered and yet also had triumphed over.

"You're all right, we shouldn't give up yet."

Startled, Danny, Ron S, and the girls looked down and realized that it was Early who spoke. She was hovering inside the canyon.

"I say two of you should come with me and look for Harry." Early continued. "If more than two come Miranda is sure to notice even though she's so upset right now."

Ron S pointed out that it would be hard for him and Kim to go since the don't have any flying equipment with them at the moment, and that lead to Danny being elected to join Early because of his flying abilities. Since Sam, Alex, and Clover have rocket packs, the three of them worked out who should join Danny and Early and in the end Alex was elected because of the friendship between her and Danny. Danny turned ghost, Alex turned on her rocket pack, and the two of them flew off after Early. When they caught up with her they saw that she was wearing a bag almost like the one Jasmine had in the Aladdin Adventure. The remaining two spies and Kim and Ron S started to catch up with the rest of us….

_In the canyon…._

Alex and Danny scanned the river using special glasses that Alex pulled out of her pack, but they still couldn't find Harry. Alex decided that they should go faster, but unfortunately her rocket pack was a little low on fuel.

"Don't worry," Danny said. "I'll increase our speed."

"Really?" Alex said. "How fast can you go?"

"A hundred and twelve miles per hour." Danny answered truthfully.

"A hundred and twelve?" Alex said, shocked.

"Well, that's what Tucker said the last time he monitored me during training." Danny shrugged.

"Oh."

Alex and Danny linked arms, Alex turned off her rocket pack, Early rested on Danny's right arm – the one linked with Alex's – and Danny flew off in a blur. A while later, Danny heard Early cry out his name. He stopped, and noticed Early looking very ruffled.

"I'm…not…used…to flying that fast." Early gasped, starting to recover.

She then fell off Danny's arm, but caught herself and went over to an edge to rest. Alex however, didn't look ruffled…though her hair did. Danny flew her back over to the edge so that she could fix her hair.

"Gee, you really seemed to enjoy the ride despite the speed." Danny noted.

"After flying in jets and planes, plus flying around the city after enemy vehicles with rocket packs, you tend to get used to speeding around in the air." Alex grinned. "That was fun."

Danny grinned back, and then gasped as he looked into the water.

"Harry!" He said, and then he suddenly clutched his right arm in pain.

"Sorry, I might've clutched your arm in fright too tightly." Early apologized, flying over to them. "I sometimes don't know my own strength."

"It's all right, let's just get Harry out of there." Danny said.

Harry fortunately was on a log, so it was an easy for Alex and Danny – who used his left arm – to pull Harry back onto land. Harry soon woke up and coughed out some water, but to Alex and Danny's amazements he didn't seem upset that the rest of us didn't go after him. He understood how we were feeling after the exile incident, so he just shrugged off the fact that we took him for dead. Harry then noticed Danny's wounded arm, so he offered to fix it. Before Danny could respond, a portal unexpectedly opened up! A blond man in a hospital gown came out with a dazed look on his face!

"Oh no," Harry and Early moaned. "Lockhart."

"Oh, broken arm?" Lockhart said as he noticed Danny. "Let me fix that."

"Lockhart no!" Harry cried.

Too late, Lockhart's spell hit Danny's arm. Two doctors soon came out and straight-jacketed Lockhart. They both apologized repeatedly, explaining that Lockhart did one of his escapes and found a wand on the floor. Harry shrugged them off with a wave and told them to just take Lockhart away.

You know, we never found out why or how that portal opened in the first place. Since portals can't be opened by any regular wizard or witch Lockhart obviously could've never done it.

"I think he fixed my arm." Danny said. "It doesn't hurt anymore."

"I hate to tell you this but just because the pain is gone doesn't mean that the arm is fixed." Harry shook his head.

Confused, Danny tried to lift his 'fixed' arm but he couldn't, so he lifted it with the other arm. He and Alex screamed as they saw his arm hang limp like a damp rag! Just like before Lockhart didn't fix the bones, he removed them!

"Uh, Early…." Harry said.

"I know, I know." Early sighed. "I'll go get the remedy."

She flew into her bag and came back with a bottle that had the top half of the skeleton for a neck. The label on the bottle was Skele-Gro. Early also brought a cup, so Alex started to pour Danny some of the potion.

"Say, uh, did Jack change the taste?" Harry whispered to Early.

"He hasn't found a proper sweetener yet." Early whispered back. "The previous ones he tried ruined the potion."

Danny had just started to drink the potion…and he spat it out in disgust.

"Yuck!" He cried. "Eww, what's in that stuff?"

Alex, confused, sniffed the potion and immediately put her hands over her nose.

"I don'd dink I wand do know." She replied.

Danny looked at the bottle and frowned.

"There's no ingredient label." He said.

"Potion bottles never have ingredient labels…for obvious reasons." Harry explained.

"Thanks." Danny winced sarcastically; Alex winced too.

Early then flew back into the bag and came back out with a sling. Alex wrapped the sling around Danny's…er…'invalid' arm and the two of them along with Early prepared to leave.

"You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up." Harry said. "There's something I need to get first."

Alex and Danny shrugged, and they, minus Harry, flew back to Pride Rock.


	15. Almost Everything is Resolved

The lionesses circled around the main ledge of Pride Rock, save for the front. The team (Danny and Alex had caught up), Hermione, Ron W, and I were in the back. We were too miserable to really join in the festivities.

Kovu and Kiara nuzzled each other at one side as Rafiki shook his staff over their heads. This was a lion version of a wedding. As I mentioned before both Kiara and Kovu wanted Rudy and Penny S to be in their wedding, and they were. Rudy stood at Kovu's right side while Penny S stood on Kiara's left side. Despite Harry being dead – as we still thought – Rudy and Penny S couldn't keep from smiling at the fact that Kovu and Kiara will now be together forever. After the wedding though Rudy and Penny S went back to us and resumed looking sad about Harry.

"I love moments like this." Pumbaa sobbed.

"Yeah." Timon agreed.

"Love, not like, love." Pumbaa and Timon both sobbed before bursting into tears; this resulted in Zazu using a wing for an umbrella.

Simba and Nala left the circle and started walking to the very edge of the ledge, Kovu and Kiara following them, and all of the lionesses bowed. Kovu and Kiara then walked around Simba and Nala so that they were next to them, and the four of them looked out towards all of the subjects. Simba roared, Kovu roared, and then all four of them roared. Soon, the other lionesses joined in too. This was not only to signify Kovu and Kiara being the future rulers, but also to welcome the ex-Outsiders into the Pride Lands. All of Simba's subjects cheered. A light from the sky soon shined down. No guesses for who that was.

"_Well done, my son._" Mufasa praised. "_We are one._"

Unexpectedly, we heard a slight howl and someone calling out: "Guys!". It was Harry! We all ran up to him, except for Kim, Ron S, Sam, Alex, Clover, and Danny. They walked behind us instead, looking not the slightest surprised that Harry was all right. As Harry ran toward us, not even he noticed that something had slid off his back.

"Harry we thought you were dead!" Sirius said as he and Lily hugged Harry.

"I tried to save you but I couldn't." James added, joining in the hug.

"How did you survive?" Hermione asked.

"After the current lessened a little I forced myself onto a log before passing out." Harry explained.

"Oh no…." I said, suddenly both embarrassed and amused. "I only scanned for you underwater! No wonder I couldn't find you."

Harry laughed. So did Kim, Ron S, Sam, Alex, Clover, and Danny. The rest of the team, RonW, Hermione and I stared at them, and for the first time noticed that Danny's arm was in a sling.

"Danny and I were the ones who got Harry out of the river." Alex grinned.

I at first opened my mouth to protest, but then laughed.

"This is the first time that I'm glad that someone went off without my permission." I grinned.

Rudy and Penny S looked a little embarrassed, obviously they hadn't forgotten the 'incident' with Vinnie.

"Say Danny, how did your arm break?" I asked.

"My arm's in a sling because Lockhart somehow appeared through a portal and stupidly…er…removed my bones…." Danny corrected, not wanting Early to get into trouble.

Most of the team gasped. Ron W, Hermione and I instead facepalmed and groaned as Harry sighed and nodded.

"Actually I accidentally fractured his arm when he flew us to Harry really fast." Early admitted, flying up to us. "Lockhart was using that non-working bone healing spell of his again."

I shrugged, I was used to Early's 'strong' mistakes. Back before she learned to control her strength a little she almost used to break my arm now and then.

"But how did the portal open in the first place?" Jenny asked. "I thought only you four and the Stone Gods could open them…and of course apparently Voldemort can…."

"Yeah, he unfortunately figured out how the portals opened." I agreed. "Since the four of us couldn't have opened the portal and the Stone Gods would never do something like that I'm guessing that it was just a freak opening. Those happen sometimes."

"*OW!*" Danny cried, clutching the arm that was in the sling.

"The Skele-Gro kicked in huh?" Harry nodded. "I still remember that happening to me."

"Yeah," Danny winced. "Why can't we feel 'pins and needles' instead of 'swords and daggers' whenever that potion kicks in?" He half joked/half muttered.

We all winced at his choice of words.

"Most potions just work like that," I shrugged. "Even Jack hasn't been able to remove those side-effects yet."

"Zira!" Simba gasped.

"Mom?" Kovu said, half happy/half shocked.

It turns out that the thing on Harry's back was Zira! She had just gotten up with a few groans.

"ZIRA?" The rest of us cried.

"What'd you bring her for?" Brad snapped to Harry.

Harry stared at him blankly.

"Gee, I thought you would know about getting to know someone before judging them." Harry retorted with a smile.

Brad grinned sheepishly as he glanced at Jenny. The rest of us, however, stared at Harry with blank, confused looks. Even Zira, who had overheard that, stared.

"W-why did you save me?" She asked, confused.

"Because I think you need a few details about Scar straightened out." Harry grinned.

What?

"Who do you think killed Scar?" Harry smiled to Zira.

Huh?

"Think?" Zira snapped. "I know that Simba killed Scar!"

There were a few moments of awkward silence.

"Wait, wait a minute you think Simba killed Scar?" Molly finally said.

The team, Ron W, Hermione and I looked at each other, and burst out laughing!

"Simba didn't kill Scar the hyenas did!" Lilo laughed as we started to calm down.

"What?" Zira said. "But the hyenas were friends with Scar, he was the only one who showed them any kindness…."

I raised a paw to silence her.

"I think we better show you everything." I said.

Rip opened the screen, and Camera started to reveal the true story starting from the stampede. You may think that Simba wouldn't have wanted to watch his father's death all over again, but there were some details that he wanted to watch since he never knew them before. Kiara, Kovu, and Nala gasped at all of the close calls Simba and Mufasa encountered, and Zira just watched the scene with horror. When Scar killed Mufasa, Simba, Kiara, Kovu, and Nala hung their heads sadly as Zira dropped her mouth opened.

Camera and I then decided to show them the scenes with the hyenas, Timon and Pumbaa, and the day Nala first arrived. With the hyenas Zira looked horrified that Scar would let them kill a cub, but with Timon and Pumbaa she actually laughed along with the rest of us. Well she didn't really laugh, she only chuckled, but still it was pretty cool.

Later on Zira, Kovu, and Kiara became amazed about Simba's attitude against becoming king. They, including Nala, also groaned at Rafiki's antics, but dropped their mouths opened when Rafiki said that Simba was 'Mufasa's boy'. Then they really dropped their mouths opened when Mufasa's ghost appeared. After all neither Nala nor Kiara really seemed to believe the 'great kings of the past are up there' statement before. Zira was shocked too, also because Mufasa was saying that Simba was the one true king.

Then we went ahead to the ruined Pride Lands and Zira looked horrified at the scene. She explained to us that she and her hunting party were far away from the Pride Lands before the drought set in. That explained Scar's statement to Sarabi about her hunting party not looking for food hard enough: Scar was comparing Sarabi's hunting party to Zira's! Zira got another shock when Scar struck Sarabi out and about Scar blaming Mufasa's death on Simba – she didn't believe it when I mentioned it back before Rafiki first showed up. Then we got to the climax of the battle with Scar and Simba fighting, and Zira was wide eyed about Scar's uncalled-for attack on Simba with the embers. She then though almost looked triumphant when Simba knocked Scar off the cliff, but that look faded away when Scar got up fine. Then the hyenas killed Scar, and looking very upset Zira asked me to stop the film.

"But it was the hyenas who told me that Simba killed Scar." She said.

What…well no wonder! That explained almost everything!

"Not those hyenas specifically." I corrected.

The film then went up to the hyenas who had found out about the previous battle too late and thought that Simba killed Scar. Rip put away the screen after that since there was no need to show Zira the scenes with Voldemort. Zira started crying.

"He…he lied to me." She sobbed.

"Don't tell us," I said. "You were in love with him?"

Zira nodded as she gave me a sad look. I also noticed that her claws had just been retracted. Just like Scar Zira always used to keep her claws out in plain view.

"Don't feel too bad, Scar had me fooled for years too." Simba said empathetically.

Zira nodded understandingly and started to tell her own version of the events. It turns out Scar had gotten Zira on her side even before the hyena attack at the Elephant Graveyard – which she never knew about, we didn't bother to show her that because it wasn't as important as the other events. It was one of those things that can be left out without really ruining the plot. That event and Scar's song were only foreshadowing. After Scar won Zira's trust, Zira fell in love with him.

After the stampede Scar told his own version of it, making sure that not even the hyenas got the blame for it. That was the only stampede story Zira knew until now. When Scar took over she too was shocked about the hyenas being let into the Pride Lands, but Scar explained to her that he wanted to give the hyenas a better chance than the previous kings gave them. That act made her fall in love with him even more. Unfortunately, the hyenas ruined most of the Pride Lands and drove away the herds even before the drought happened, and for the first time Zira was actually angry at Scar. She calmed down though when Scar gently said that he'll have a talk with them, and she promised to lead her hunting party after the herds. Sarabi actually tried to talk her out of it and said that it was all over, but Zira accused Sarabi for not seeing Scar as a good king because she was blinded with grief over her husband and son's deaths.

So when Zira and her hunting party went off after the herds, the drought and Simba coming back happened. When Zira and her hunting party got back the next day – after the team and the four of us had already left – the hyenas that the four of us fought before the basilisk appeared approached her and told her that Mufasa – they mistook Simba for Mufasa just like Scar and Sarabi did at first – had come back from the dead and killed Scar. Horrified that Mufasa would kill his own brother, Zira confronted Simba and found out that he wasn't Mufasa at all. Because of Zira and her hunting party's fierce loyalty to Scar, especially Zira's, Simba exiled them not long after. And that was how the whole trouble with the Outsiders had started.

As for Kovu becoming Scar's heir, that was obvious. When Nuka was first born he was Scar's real heir. But as Nuka grew older he also grew crazier, and neither Zira nor Scar saw him as the next in line to be king. Then when Kovu was born, after Scar's death, Scar appeared to Zira in dream form and told her that Kovu was going to be his heir. That was the night before Zira and her friends returned to Pride Rock.

It also turns out that all of those things Zira said to Kovu about being like Scar, which we found out from Kovu and Harry, weren't supposed to be as evil as they sounded. She had just been so wrapped up in avenging Scar that it darkened her heart without her knowing. Plus she still thought Scar had been a good king and the problems in the Pride Lands were only the hyenas' fault. She didn't know at the time that Scar didn't really care about the fate of the Pride Lands.

"I-I'm sorry." Zira said to Simba. "I had both Scar and you all wrong. Truce?" She asked, extending a paw.

"Truce." Simba smiled, taking her paw; they shook on it.

Rudy, looking guilty again, approached Zira.

"Zira, please don't blame Kovu for Nuka's death…." He began.

"No, no, I only blamed him because I was so upset." Zira interrupted. "I now see that Nuka was really Scar's real heir the whole time. He was just so…so senseless that I never saw it. But then when we ambushed Simba he was the only one who was…who was evil enough to try to kill Simba, just like Scar would've done."

"No, I mean…I mean I'm the one who killed Nuka." Rudy admitted.

The rest of the team and the four of us gasped! Rudy after all was no killer. True, if given the chance he would kill an enemy, but only as a last resort.

"Rudy…." Penny S gasped, looking at him wide eyed.

"I-I didn't mean to." Rudy continued. "I was just trying to save Simba by knocking Nuka down…and the logs did the rest…."

Penny S, relieved, hugged Rudy to comfort him. Kovu immediately cut Rudy off from Zira in a protective stance, but Zira didn't look the least bit angry.

"It's all right Kovu stand down." Zira said gently. "All Rudy did was kill Scar all over again. You have nothing to feel guilty about." She smiled to Rudy.

Rudy actually smiled back, though it didn't look that sincere to me. Kovu smiled too and backed away a few inches, but my face fell as I went over to Rip.

"Come on guys it's time to go home." I said.

"Already?" Hermione said. "But Hogwarts only starts in another two months."

"Yeah but high school for me starts in just a couple of days." I explained. "I'm going to a school with three different tracks and the track I'm on runs from July to October before a two month winter break. It then runs from January to April."

My fellow operatives shook their heads.

"High school just…just doesn't seem like the place for you." Numbuh 274 said. "After all the only friends you'll have will be Rudy, Penny, Snap and myself."

Penny S wanted Rudy and herself to continue their education despite the fact that they won't be going back to school in the Real World, so we talked it over and decided that they could come to school with me in the Main World even though that meant skipping middle school. Snap wanted to come too, so we agreed. Numbuh 274's reason for going to school with me was of course already explained at the beginning of the Adventure

"I know but there's nothing I can do about it." I said. "Besides the sooner I start school the sooner I'll be entirely free."

My fellow operatives had to nod to that one.

"We should warn you about high school disadvantages…." Clover said.

"No need I got enough from watching all of you who go to high school." I laughed. "I'll be fine, after all I won't really be alone."

Everyone nodded and got into his or her compartment. Rudy and Penny S hugged Kovu and Kiara good-bye before joining us. They even smiled at Zira and shook hands/paw with her. We also said good-bye to everyone – except for Simba. With him it was just awkward silence, though Penny S and Snap gave him a cold look and Rudy gave him a sad one. The rest of us had already had our share of giving Simba a glare, so we just looked sadly at him before preparing to leave through a portal that had just opened up. Before we did, Simba approached us.

"Rudy, I wouldn't blame you if you never forgive me, so let me just say this: you'll make a better king than I ever did." He said.

Tears formed in Rudy's eyes.

"Th-thank you." Rudy almost sobbed. "Sorry Simba, I want to forgive you but something keeps holding me back."

Simba looked concerned and sympathetic about that and looked at me as if I knew the answer.

"Don't look at me, you're the one who broke his heart." I said coldly.

Simba looked really guilty and regretful now. Most everyone else looked at Rudy with sympathy or empathy.

You see I happen to know how good-hearted Rudy really is. And those with really good hearts can get a broken heart from more than losing their true love. Being treated as evil also causes that effect.

"Don't you think you're being a little too hard on Simba?" Kovu said gently.

"Kovu, Simba wasn't the only one hurt by Mufasa's death." I shook my head. "Mufasa was one of my best friends, and some members of the team and I actually could've saved him or even save Simba from the stampede before Mufasa even arrived. But there was one problem: we worried about them so much that we didn't think straight." I glared at Simba at this; Simba looked towards Kiara knowingly/regretfully. "After the stampede the team and I decided to never let our worry get in the way of helping someone. So we learned from the past, like Simba, but unlike Simba we didn't let the past control us. Even though we still feel bad about not saving Mufasa we don't let our guilt consume us."

Kovu fell silent, now understanding why the team and the four of us were still being unfriendly to Simba. I mean we did forgive Simba for his mistakes, but we were still mad at him for hurting Rudy. We weren't going to stop being mad until Rudy's pain goes away.

Then as I turned around...

"Toodle-oo!" Rafiki smiled, suddenly appearing in front of me!

This really startled me, and the other Superwolves and the rest of the team too for that matter.

"How do you do that?" I asked, recovering.

"Well I am a shaman, I do know a little magic." Rafiki winked.

The team and the four of us smirked, realizing that we should have figured that one out a long time ago.

Then we started to leave. Before we did Penny S and Snap looked at Simba coldly again, but when Rudy held Penny S's hand and put a hand on Snap's shoulder they couldn't keep from softening their expressions. We sadly left.

When we arrived at our resting spot, Danny started to look nervous as the portals to all of the worlds that we all belonged in open. He relaxed little when his sister Jazz and his two best friends Sam and Tucker left the portal, and the three of them hugged him. They also went on about how worried they were when Danny became badly wounded after using his portal power during the Pocahontas Adventure. Then Danny's new friend Valerie came out of the portal with a smile.

"My dad and I forgive you for accidentally getting him fired." She said. "We now realize that you were just trying to capture that dog ghost."

She and Danny hugged as Jazz, Sam, and Tucker looked at her gratefully. Danny was about to leave with his sister and friends through the portal, when….

"Danny wait!" Alex called; she ran up to him and hugged him. "I'll miss you."

"Bye Alex." Danny smiled back.

To everyone's surprise, Danny's friend Sam actually smiled at Alex and shook her hand! Sam, you see, had never grown close to anyone except for Danny and her grandma…and Tucker too, but they had their slight differences. As for her parents, well, the three of them were complete opposites so that caused some problems.

"Thanks for being a good friend to him." Danny's friend Sam said to Alex.

"No problem." Alex smiled back.

Sam the spy and Clover then said goodbye to Danny. Danny's friend Sam then mentioned that she had actually already forgiven Sam the spy from trying to force Danny into revealing his secret back during the Aladdin Adventure. She understood how going through dangerous adventures can cause you to want to know any information that could save your life or a friends' life later. We started to leave through our own portals, but when Danny approached his portal he saw his parents, gasped, and flew through the ceiling to his room upstairs. His parents didn't look hurt, but they did look sad.

"Give him time, he'll come around." I said to his parents.

They nodded, and the portals disappeared as we left through them. Numbuh 274, Rudy, and Penny S followed me through me portal back home, where Rudy's parents, aunt, and cousin, and Penny S's mom already were. The next Adventure we will have will take place during winter break, and will be in a world that I have visited ever since I first became a Superwolf.


End file.
